Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, October 30, 1994 TAG: 9411010040
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
Witnesses said two men tackled the suspect, who was identified as Francisco Martin Duran, and turned him over to Secret Service agents who vaulted the fence surrounding the White House compound. Twenty to 30 shots were fired at the mansion.
``The president was in no danger whatsoever,'' said Richard Griffin, assistant Secret Service director for protective operations. Hillary Rodham Clinton and the Clintons' daughter, Chelsea, were not home.
Clad in a dark trench coat, the gunman pulled out his gun amid tourists and fired in bursts toward the White House about 3 p.m. People scrambled for cover as he moved east away from the building. Witnesses said he aimed at the crowd just before he was tackled.
Duran, 26, was taken for questioning to a Secret Service field office, where he invoked his right to an attorney. ``He's not saying anything anyway,'' special agent Tim Cahill said.
Griffin said there was no indication that the gunman was working with anyone else. ``I would not characterize this as an assassination attempt at all, no way,'' he said.
Late Saturday, Clinton praised the ``ordinary citizens'' who apprehended the gunman and said the incident demonstrated why Congress was right in passing the crime bill, which included a ban on assault weapons.
The Secret Service said Duran carried an SKS Chinese semiautomatic rifle, which has been banned from import into the United States since May. The government said there are more than 1 million SKS rifles in the United States.
White House press secretary Dee Dee Myers said the U.S. attorney's office was considering what charges would be filed. She said no formal charges would be lodged before today. Myers said authorities were checking the man's fingerprints to verify that he was the person listed on his driver's license.
Tourists and passersby were walking along Pennsylvania Avenue just outside the White House when the shooting began. A tourist's videotape shows Duran walking toward the White House fence, opening his coat and pulling out a gun. The gunshots are heard on the tape, as people nearby flinch at the sound.
In suburban Colorado Springs, Duran's wife, Ingrid, told law enforcement officials that he left their home Sept. 30, saying he was going to pick up items for target practice. He never returned and she filed a missing-person report Oct. 1, according to the El Paso County Sheriff's Office. Secret Service agents said Duran had a business address at the Broadmoor Hotel, a world-class resort.
Duran's wife told law officials that he left their home in a brown pickup truck. Investigators swarmed over a vehicle matching her description near the White House. The pickup, with Colorado plates, had bumper stickers with these slogans: ``Fire Butch Reno,'' an apparent reference to Attorney General Janet Reno, and ``Those who beat their guns into plows will plow for those who don't.''
by CNB