U.S. Secret Service officers shot and killed an intruder who was smashing windows at the residence of the Peruvian ambassador to the United States on Wednesday, authorities said.
The ambassador and his family were inside the residence in the Forest Hills neighborhood of northwest Washington when they heard several windows being smashed just before 8 a.m. and called the Secret Service for a “burglary in progress,” authorities said. The agency is responsible for protecting foreign dignitaries and missions in the U.S., including embassies and diplomatic residences.
The uniformed Secret Service officers encountered a man, armed with a metal stake, in the rear yard of the residence and deployed a Taser in an effort to detain him, but “those weapons appear to not have any effect on the person,” Metropolitan Police Department Chief Robert Contee said at a news conference.
The officers then shot the man, who was pronounced dead at the scene, Contee said. His identity has not been released.