Secret Service shoots gunman

WASHINGTON (AP) - A man brandishing a gun outside the White House fence was shot by a Secret Service officer today after a 10-minute standoff, officials said. The episode triggered a tight security clampdown.

President Bush was safe in his residence, exercising, at the time. Vice President Dick Cheney was working in his office. Laura Bush was at the family ranch in Crawford, Texas.

The wounded man was Robert W. Pickett, 47, of Evansville, Ind., according to law enforcement officials. He was taken to nearby George Washington University Hospital where he was to undergo surgery. He also was to undergo psychiatric evaluation.

Pickett is an Indiana accountant with no prior criminal record. Neighbors said the 47-year-old lived alone after his parents died.

"You could see the sadness on his face" after his father died in 1995, said Marwan Wafa of Racine, Wis., who lived across the street from Pickett for seven years before moving last summer.

An unopened newspaper from Sunday was on the front porch today of his modest two-story white house in a middle-class neighborhood. Residents reacted with shock at word that Pickett was involved in an incident that grabbed the nation's attention.

"I was really surprised. As far as I knew, he was an outstanding neighbor," said Lewis Gates, who last saw Pickett in December.

Officials said the episode began when police approached a man with a gun on the sidewalk along the fence on the south side of the White House.

"He was waving it in the air - it was pointed at the White House at one point - and pointing it in all directions," said Park Police spokesman Rob MacLean. At one point, the suspect placed the gun in his mouth, MacLean added.

White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said officers on regular patrol "heard shots fired and proceeded to surround the subject."

"A 10-minute standoff ensued upon which time the Secret Service fired a shot into the suspect's leg," Fleischer said. He said the wound did not appear to be life threatening.

"The president understood that he was not in any danger," the spokesman said.

Shoppers mill about the produce section this morning on the opening day of the Market of Choice in the former Buy Rite Market building. Ashland Daily Tidings/DENISE BARATTA

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