Gunman Near White House “Was Only Going to Fire a Couple of Shots”

A man who displayed a loaded weapon at a U.S. Secret Service police booth outside the White House told officers, “I was only going to fire a couple of shots if no one confronted me,” according to court documents.

Officers arrested Christopher Wade Briggs in the 700 block of Jackson Place NW Tuesday afternoon.

An officer in the police booth saw Briggs, who was not wearing a shirt, take a holstered semi-automatic .45-caliber handgun from a backpack and attach it to his belt, according to court documents. The officer called for backup to assist with the arrest.

The gun was loaded with 13 rounds in the magazine and one in the chamber, according to court documents. A search of Briggs’s backpack found two more magazines filled with 13 rounds and 171 more rounds of .45-caliber, hollow-point ammunition. He also had two hunting knives with serrated edges -- one with a 7-inch blade and one with a 12-inch blade.

The officers did not find a license to carry or any gun permit in Briggs’s name, and Briggs did not say he had a license to carry or gun permit.

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