Secret Service agent protecting Naomi Biden fires gun during car burglary
A Secret Service agent guarding one of President Biden’s granddaughters shot at three people who broke into an unoccupied government vehicle in Washington late Sunday, but did not appear to hit them, a senior law enforcement official said.
The three people are still at large, and there is no indication they knew the vehicle was part of the protective detail for Mr. Biden’s granddaughter, Naomi, when they smashed a window in upscale Georgetown around 11:30 p.m. part of the city.
“Secret Service agents may have encountered three individuals breaking a window of a parked and unoccupied government vehicle,” a Secret Service spokesperson said in a statement. “During this encounter, a federal agent fired a service weapon and no one is believed to have been struck.”
There was no threat to the “security guards,” the statement said, which did not specify who they might be. A senior law enforcement official later confirmed that the person protected was Mrs. Biden.
The three fled in a red vehicle and a bulletin was immediately issued to local and federal law enforcement authorities. The incident is being investigated by the District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department and the Secret Service.
The police press office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The White House referred calls to the Secret Service.
While the post-pandemic spike in crime has subsided in many cities, carjacking and auto theft rates have risen in Washington. Rep. Henry Cuellar, a Texas Democrat, was carjacked near the Capitol in October by three armed men who fled in his car but left him otherwise unharmed.
Naomi Biden, 29, is the daughter of Mr. Biden’s son, Hunter. A year ago, she became the first presidential granddaughter to marry at the White House when she married Peter Neal in a ceremony on the South Lawn.
Ms. Biden, a graduate of Columbia Law School who works at a major law firm, grew up in the nation’s capital and met Mr. Neal while working at Georgetown Law School’s Center on National Security.