A 17-year-old boy has been identified as one of the two people who breached a security checkpoint at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland around the same time as Vice President Kamala Harris landed at the base.
Ms Harris and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff left the base on Sunday night aboard Marine Two, according to a White House pool report.
The base was put on lockdown on Sunday night following the security breach. The 17-year-old had a gun and was taken into police custody. A second individual managed to escape on foot and hasn’t been located, the base said in a statement.
Following a search lasting for hours, officials said the individual who got away was believed to be in the area surrounding the base. The main gate was opened at 3am.
There was no active shooter and no shots were fired, officials told WTOP. The security breach occurred at 9pm on Sunday when a vehicle didn’t adhere to security commands at the main gate.
The search was conducted by base security as well as law enforcement from Prince George’s County, Maryland State Police, DC police and the Office of Special Investigation.
Colonel Tyler Schaff said that he was “incredibly proud of the quick actions of our Defenders to immediately deploy the barriers to stop last night’s stolen vehicle and then apprehend one of the individuals that had a weapon. The Defenders handled the intense situation with discipline and calm professionalism”.
“At approximately 9pm today, one vehicle drove through the security checkpoint and failed to adhere to commands of security personnel at the Main Gate on Joint Base Andrews, Maryland,” officials from the military base said in a statement on Sunday.
Confirming the arrest of one of the intruders, officials said: “The 316 Security Forces Group immediately deployed the barriers and stopped the vehicle. Two individuals fled the vehicle, and one was apprehended by 316th SFG.”
The Maryland security base Joint Base Andrews, from where Ms Harris and her husband had just taken off, was locked down, according to reports.
The couple left the military base for the Naval Observatory on Marine Two after which the site was sealed off, NPR’s White House correspondent Scott Detrow initially tweeted.
The vice president and several cabinet members had just landed at the military base after a trip to Selma, Alabama for a “Bloody Sunday” anniversary event.
“[The] Guards stopped the shuttle reporters take from the terminal. They had rifles out and searched our van,” Mr Detrow added.
Ms Harris was accompanied by four cabinet secretaries. All of them — transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg, housing secretary Marcia Fudge, education secretary Miguel Cardona and environmental protection agency administrator Michael Regan — left the base early, the White House said at around 9.40pm.
The base was locked down moments after 9.30pm.
President Joe Biden was not present at the Joint Base Andrews at the time of the security breach as he had travelled directly to the White House from Delaware.
