A wall of gunfire shattered a quiet Saturday evening outside the White House.Reporters hit the ground. Secret Service agents drew rifles and sprinted toward the west gate. A gunman with a revolver, witnesses say, got off several shots before disappearing beneath a storm of return fire. A bystander fell. Another screamed. Sirens, shouting, then sudde… Continues…

For several breathless minutes, one of the most heavily guarded addresses on earth felt terrifyingly exposed. Witnesses described the gunman pacing along 17th Street, drawing a pistol and firing toward the park before agents unleashed a volley that cut him down near Gate 17. Tourists scattered, journalists dove behind camera platforms, and the White House complex snapped into lockdown as radios crackled with overlapping commands.

Inside the press corps, phones rolled as correspondents were ordered to sprint to the briefing room and shelter in place. Outside the perimeter, streets filled with flashing lights, armored vehicles and heavily armed officers fanning through the neighborhood.

Federal officials confirmed the FBI rushed in to assist, even as medics treated the wounded and investigators began piecing together what drove a lone man to open fire at the doorstep of the presidency—on a night the president said he was inside, working on a fragile peace. READ MORE BELOW