A bystander who was struck by gunfire after a man fired on a checkpoint outside the White House and was fatally shot by U.S. Secret Service officers remained in serious but stable condition Sunday.
The Secret Service said the bystander, who has not been identified, suffered a gunshot wound described as not life-threatening. It was not clear how he was shot.
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People walk past a hole in the wall of a building near the scene of a shooting close to the White House, Sunday, May 24, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
People watch as U.S. Secret Service Police place crime scene tape after a copper jacket of a bullet was found near the scene of a shooting close to the White House, Sunday, May 24, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Blue tape is pictured around a possible bullet strike near the shooting scene near the scene of a shooting close to the White House, Sunday, May 24, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
A copper jacket of a bullet is found near the scene of a shooting close to the White House, Sunday, May 24, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
U.S. Secret Service Police officers place crime scene tape after a copper jacket of a bullet was found near the scene of a shooting close to the White House, Sunday, May 24, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Authorities have released few additional details about the early Saturday evening shooting. The District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department said the suspect, identified as 21-year-old Nasire Best, started shooting toward a White House security checkpoint when Secret Service officers returned fire. Best, of Dundalk, Maryland, was later pronounced dead at a hospital.
President Donald Trump was in the White House at the time of the shooting.
It was the third shooting near the president in the past month, after a man stormed the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner in April armed with guns and knives, and Secret Service officers shot and wounded a man who fired at them earlier this month near the Washington Monument.
In a Truth Social post, Trump said the suspect in Saturday’s shooting had a “possible obsession with our Country’s most cherished structure.” He also used the shooting to promote the ballroom he is seeking to build on the site of the White House’s former East Wing, saying the shooting “goes to show how important it is, for all future Presidents, to get, what will be, the most safe and secure space of its kind ever built in Washington, D.C.” Trump is asking Congress for $1 billion for security additions for the White House campus, including the ballroom.
Best had a previous run-in with law enforcement near the White House, according to District of Columbia court records. He was arrested last July for attempting to enter White House grounds near a different checkpoint. He failed to heed officers’ commands to stop, claimed to be Jesus Christ and said he wanted to be arrested.
Best was a track and field athlete at Dundalk High School, from which he graduated in 2023.
A woman who identified herself as Best’s mother told The Washington Post that she learned about the shooting on social media and was in disbelief. She said her son “was never violent, regardless of what people are posting.”
People walk past a hole in the wall of a building near the scene of a shooting close to the White House, Sunday, May 24, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
People watch as U.S. Secret Service Police place crime scene tape after a copper jacket of a bullet was found near the scene of a shooting close to the White House, Sunday, May 24, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Blue tape is pictured around a possible bullet strike near the shooting scene near the scene of a shooting close to the White House, Sunday, May 24, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
A copper jacket of a bullet is found near the scene of a shooting close to the White House, Sunday, May 24, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
U.S. Secret Service Police officers place crime scene tape after a copper jacket of a bullet was found near the scene of a shooting close to the White House, Sunday, May 24, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
A damaged chemical tank in Southern California has a crack — potentially lowering the risk of a cataclysmic explosion — though an evacuation order remains in effect for some 50,000 area residents with no timeline on when they can return, fire officials said Sunday.
TJ McGovern, the interim fire chief for the Orange County Fire Authority, said in a video posted on social media that fire officials were able to evaluate the tank more closely overnight. Orange County Fire Authority Capt. Wayhowe Huang confirmed the tank had cracked.
Huang told The Associated Press earlier Sunday that it did not appear that any of the highly volatile chemicals in the tank have leaked. “There’s still the danger of a possible explosion," Huang said.
Firefighters have been spraying the tank with water in an effort to cool the chemicals inside and prevent an explosion.
The pressurized tank overheated Thursday and began venting vapors at a company site in Garden Grove, about 40 miles (60 kilometers) south of downtown Los Angeles, according to the Fire Authority.
No injuries have been reported. Air monitoring tests have found that air pollution around the evacuation zone is within normal limits, and specialized equipment has been deployed to ensure no gas is released from the compromised tank, state and federal environmental officials said Saturday.
The streets were empty in the area Sunday, according to aerial photos taken by the AP.
A crack could be a welcome development, as it could mean product or pressure inside the tank is being released, reducing the chance the tank explodes, said Andrew Whelton, an engineering professor at Purdue University.
“Think of a soda can. If you leave it in a hot car it can explode," he said. "But if you put a hole in the can, the product is released and the can itself doesn’t explode.”
Elias Picazo, a chemistry professor at the University of Southern California, agreed that a crack could be a positive development.
“A strategic leak buys more time for the liquid within the tank to solidify as the reaction continues,” he said. “Depending on where the leak is, it can also be used to direct the unreacted liquid out of the tank in a controlled manner.”
Faisal Khan, head of the chemical engineering department at Texas A&M University, said a crack suggests an explosion could still happen -- just not in the magnitude initially feared.
“Cooling is happening on the surface of the tank while runaway reaction may be occurring deep inside the tank,” he explained. “Yes, reaction is slowed compared to what it started. However, we are not out of explosive release risk.”
Several shelters for evacuees remained open. The parking lot was full Sunday at an evacuation center at a high school in neighboring La Palma. Some people, including a family of seven, slept in cars or on mats and sleeping bags on the asphalt. The large family also had nine cats with them. They stacked up cat carriers for a makeshift table as they waited around, sipping coffee and tending to the pets.
Meanwhile, some Garden Grove residents filed a class-action lawsuit on Saturday against GKN Aerospace Transparency Systems, the company that operates the facility where the tank is located.
Lawyers for residents living in the evacuation zone argued in their federal court lawsuit that regardless of what happens next, property values in the surrounding community are sure to be impacted.
Spokespersons for the company didn’t comment on the lawsuit itself, but pointed to a Saturday statement in which they apologized to residents and businesses that have been forced to evacuate.
On Sunday, the company released another statement saying it was monitoring the “condition of the affected material” and “working around the clock to mitigate the risk of a leak.”
Officials said the valves on the tank are broken or “gummed up,” which prevented crews from removing the chemical or relieving the pressure on the tank, said Craig Covey, Orange County Fire Authority division chief.
Firefighters’ first hope is to find a way to cool off the chemical inside the tank so it won’t leak or explode. If that is not possible, Whelton said it would be best if the tank sprang a leak so the chemical could be mostly contained. An explosion that could spread the chemical over a broad area and send shrapnel flying would be the worst-case scenario.
If the temperature inside the tank continues to increase, the pressure will continue to build as the methyl methacrylate converts from a liquid to a gas. Whelton said it’s unlikely that firefighters would consider creating a hole in the tank because of fears that could create a spark that might ignite the volatile and flammable gas.
Drones were monitoring temperatures at 10-minute intervals to watch for any spikes, Covey said on a social media post on X. Containment barriers have been set up to prevent the chemical from getting into storm drains or reaching creeks or the nearby ocean in the event of a spill, Covey said.
The damaged tank is located at GKN Aerospace, which makes parts for commercial and military aircraft. It holds 6,000 to 7,000 gallons (22,700 and 26,500 liters) of methyl methacrylate, used to make plastic parts.
GKN agreed to pay state regulators more than $900,000 in 2025 to settle violations involving recordkeeping, permitting issues and nitrogen oxide emissions, according to a report on the South Coast Air Quality Management District website.
Exposure to methyl methacrylate can cause serious respiratory problems and even render someone unconscious. It can also cause neurological problems and irritate the skin, eyes and throat, according to fact sheets about the chemical. But Orange County health officials said the chemical is easy to smell and residents may notice it over a large area without being harmed.
Whelton said the volume of chemical in the tank is much smaller than in the disastrous 2023 train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, which he studied when more than 115,000 gallons (435,000 liters) of vinyl chloride was released after officials blew open five tank cars and burned the chemical.
“Many of these are acute, fast-acting effects. But the longer somebody stays in contact with it, the more potential for significant damage that occurs,” Whelton said.
If an explosion releases the chemical into the air, Whelton said, it will be crucial to conduct detailed air monitoring specifically for methyl methacrylate and not just generic tests for volatile organic compounds as officials did in East Palestine.
The weather will be an important factor in determining where a plume of chemicals would go in the event of an explosion. Officials were developing maps to predict different scenarios.
Garden Grove is next to Anaheim, home to Disneyland’s two theme parks, which were not under evacuation orders. Park officials said they were monitoring the incident and supporting employees impacted by evacuations.
Marcelo reported from New York.Associated Press journalist Ethan Swope contributed to this report.
The streets remain empty in Garden Grove, Calif., on Sunday, May 24, 2026, after a storage tank containing a chemical used to make plastic parts overheated Thursday at an aerospace plastics facility. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
An evacuee gather their pets and belongings at the John F. Kennedy High School in La Palma, Calif., on Sunday, May 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
Water is sprayed on a damaged tank at GKN Aerospace in Garden Grove, Calif., on Sunday, May 24, 2026, after the tank containing a chemical used to make plastic parts overheated Thursday. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
The streets remain empty in Garden Grove, Calif., on Sunday, May 24, 2026, after a storage tank containing a chemical used to make plastic parts overheated Thursday at an aerospace plastics facility. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
Water is sprayed on a damaged tank at GKN Aerospace in Garden Grove, Calif., on Sunday, May 24, 2026, after the tank containing a chemical used to make plastic parts overheated Thursday. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
People arrive at Freedom Hall, an evacuation center in Fountain Valley, Calif., after a storage tank containing a chemical used to make plastic parts overheated Thursday at an aerospace plastics facility in Garden Grove, on Saturday, May 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Jill Connelly)
People arrive at Freedom Hall, an evacuation center in Fountain Valley, Calif., after a storage tank containing a chemical used to make plastic parts overheated Thursday at an aerospace plastics facility in Garden Grove, on Saturday, May 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Jill Connelly)
Evacuees from an aerospace chemical plant tank leak move to another shelter after the Garden Grove Sports and Recreation Center closed for the night in Garden Grove, Calif., Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
Water is sprayed on a tank that overheated at an aerospace plant in Garden Grove, Calif., Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
