U.S. Secret Service officers shot and killed an intruder at the Peruvian ambassador’s Northwest D.C. residence Tuesday morning, authorities said.
D.C. Police Chief Robert Contee said officers with the Secret Service’s uniformed division were called to the ambassador’s home, on Garrison Street in the Forest Hills neighborhood, after family members there reported a burglary in progress.
In a statement Wednesday afternoon, the Secret Service said officers were called to the ambassador’s residence shortly before 8 a.m.
Two Secret Service officers arriving at the scene learned someone had bashed in windows and doors around the back of the house. Contee said officers encountered a man wielding a “metal stake,” whom they unsuccessfully tried to subdue with Tasers before firing their service weapons.
The Secret Service statement described the weapon as a metal pole and that after officers attempted to subdue him with the Taser, he “continued to charge toward the officers with his weapon.”
Officials did not say how many shots the officers fired.
The man was pronounced dead on scene. The officers were transported to a hospital for evaluation, though Contee did not believe they had sustained life-threatening injuries.
“We don’t see these types of incidents around here; this is totally out of the ordinary,” Contee said at a media briefing. “I can’t recall the last time we had this type of incident on the property of one of our ambassadors.”
It is unclear why or how the man, described by police as being in his late 20s to early 30s, entered the property. The Peruvian ambassador and his wife were in the residence at the time, but no one inside was injured.
The Secret Service holds jurisdiction at embassies and diplomatic residences. While the incident happened on Garrison Street, the Peruvian Embassy is along Massachusetts Avenue near Dupont Circle.
“A person entered the official residence without authorization, causing material damage to the property,” the embassy said in a statement. “The ambassador, his family, residence staff and Secret Service officers are safe.”
WTOP’s Jack Moore contributed to this report.
