Secret Service agent protecting Naomi Biden fires gun during car break-in
ASSOCIATED PRESS
A secret service agent, in July 2022, in New York. Secret Service agents protecting President Joe Biden’s granddaughter have opened fire after three people tried to break into an unmarked Secret Service vehicle in Washington.
WASHINGTON >> A Secret Service agent guarding one of President Joe Biden’s granddaughters fired at three people seen breaking into an unoccupied government vehicle in Washington late Sunday but did not appear to have hit them, according to a senior law enforcement official.
The three people remain at large, and there is no indication that they knew that the vehicle was part of the protective detail for Biden’s granddaughter Naomi when they smashed a window around 11:30 p.m. in the upscale Georgetown section of the city.
“Secret Service agents encountered possibly three individuals breaking a window on a parked and unoccupied government vehicle,” a spokesperson for the Secret Service said in a statement. “During this encounter, a federal agent discharged a service weapon and it is believed no one was struck.”
There was no threat to the “protectees,” according to the statement, which did not specify whom they might be. A senior law enforcement official later confirmed the protectee was Naomi Biden.
The three fled in a red vehicle, and a bulletin was immediately issued to local and federal law enforcement agencies. The incident is being investigated by the District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department and the Secret Service.
The police department’s press office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The White House referred calls to the Secret Service.
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While the post-pandemic spike in crime has subsided in many cities, carjacking and auto theft rates in Washington have been on the rise. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, was carjacked near the Capitol in October by three armed men who sped away in his car but left him otherwise unharmed.
Naomi Biden, 29, is the daughter of Biden’s son, Hunter. A year ago, she became the first presidential granddaughter to be married at the White House when she wed Peter Neal in a ceremony on the South Lawn.
Naomi Biden, a graduate of Columbia Law School who works at a large law firm, grew up in the nation’s capital and met Neal when he was working at Georgetown Law School’s Center on National Security.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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