In the late morning of a Saturday in Washington, D.C., a young man named Cameron Ross Burgess, a 26-year-old white male, approached the north fence line of the White House. It was shortly before noon on March 3, 2018, and a crowd of over 100 people were in the vicinity. Burgess, who had recently been living in Maylene, Alabama, produced a handgun and fired several shots.
None of the rounds were aimed at the White House.
In front of the onlookers who then fled, Burgess turned the gun on himself, sustaining a fatal self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. The U.S. Secret Service and the Washington D.C. Metropolitan Police Department responded to the incident, and the White House was placed on a temporary lockdown. At the time of the event, the President and his family were not in the White House. Law enforcement confirmed that no one else was injured.
The investigation into Cameron Ross Burgess's death was led by the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department. His death was ruled a suicide, and as a result, there were no suspects or arrests made in connection with the incident. Authorities located Burgess's car, a maroon Honda Accord with an Alabama license plate, parked a few blocks away from the White House. A law enforcement source indicated that Burgess had shot his phone before shooting himself and that while no suicide note was found, incoherent sentences were discovered in a book at the scene. Burgess was a 2013 graduate of Auburn University and had no prior criminal history. His remains were taken to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner for an autopsy.
