(Ken Silva, Headline USA) A Secret Service officer reportedly shot himself in the foot Saturday night while he was near the Israeli ambassador’s residence in Washington DC.
“According to USSS, the agent was on duty during the ‘negligent discharge’ while he was handling his weapon shortly before 8 p.m. in the area of 32nd and Fessenden streets Northwest,” a local DC news station reported Saturday.
“His injuries were not life threatening, and the officer was taken to a hospital for evaluation and treatment. USSS says no one else was injured in the incident.”
According to reporter Susan Crabtree, the officer wasn’t a special agent, but instead was a Uniformed Division Officer attached to the Secret Service’s Foreign Missions branch.
“These officers protect more than 500 foreign diplomatic missions in the Washington Metropolitan Area. They respond to complaints and calls for assistance primarily from foreign embassy personnel,” Crabtree reported.
UPDATE: This was a Uniformed Division Officer attached to the Secret Service's Foreign Missions branch, not a special agent, who shot himself in the foot (literally) last night.
These officers protect more than 500 foreign diplomatic missions in the Washington Metropolitan… https://t.co/GaQwh16D6x
— Susan Crabtree (@susancrabtree) September 22, 2024
“One source says the UD Officer shot himself in the foot, i.e. in a ‘negligent discharge’ with a duty rifle near the Israeli ambassador’s residence. Not a great time for a shooting, misfire or not, outside that residence to occur—to say the least.”
The Secret Service misfire recalls the agency’s recent security failures—most notably, in Butler Pennsylvania, where Donald Trump was nearly assassinated on July 13. In that event, a local officer who abandoned his post before the shooting was also revealed to have shot himself last December.
“Police Sergeant Gregory Nicol was in his office at the Monaca Police Station on December 15 when he unholstered his duty weapon to show it to another officer. His firearm accidentally discharged in the process, in what is being described as a ‘freak accident,’” the BeaverCountian reported in January, citing two unnamed law enforcement sources.
“The round when through-and-through the officer’s leg, which was subsequently placed in a tourniquet. Nicol was transported to Heritage Valley Beaver where he was treated for soft tissue injuries and released. The officer missed a week-and-a-half of work before returning to full duty.”
Nicol went on to infamy at Butler for leaving his post—a post that would have given him a view of Thomas Crooks on the rooftop.
According to ABC, Nicol left his sniper’s post after he spotted Crooks. He went downstairs and moved through the building trying to shadow Crooks, who was outside, and keep eyes on him. But Nicol reportedly lost sight of Crooks as the counter sniper made his way down to the building’s first level.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
