The intruder who jumped the White House fence earlier this month and sprinted through the mansion's front door in a rare security breach made it farther into the building than previously known, sources told Fox News on Monday.
Sources confirmed a report that the alleged intruder Omar J. Gonzalez overpowered a Secret Service officer and made it into the East Room on Sept. 19.
Gonzalez, 42, who allegedly had a knife, eventually was tackled by a counter-assault agent in the East Room after he reached the doorway to the Green Room, a parlor overlooking the South Lawn.
The details were initially reported by the Washington Post and have been confirmed by Fox News.
There was a struggle and "wrestling" inside the White House, a source told Fox News.
An alarm box near the front entrance of the White House designed to alert guards to an intruder had been muted at what officers believed was a request of the usher's office, an official told The Washington Post.
An officer posted inside the front door appeared to be delayed in learning that Gonzalez was about to burst through, according to the Post. Officers are trained to immediately lock the front door once an intruder is spotted on the grounds.
Previously, the Secret Service had claimed that Gonzalez was intercepted shortly after he breached the front door at the North Portico.
Secret Service spokeswoman Nicole Mainor told Fox News that the agency would not comment on the revelations, citing the ongoing investigation.
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee was scheduled to convene a hearing Tuesday morning about the breach, at which Secret Service Director Julia Pierson is expected to testify. The new details about a far more significant breach were expected to dominate the lawmakers' inquiries.
The Secret Service has been having high-level meetings to address the breach, the latest in a series of embarrassing scandals for the agency since a 2012 prostitution scandal erupted during a presidential visit to Colombia.
The Post reported over the weekend that the Secret Service did not immediately respond to shots fired at the White House in 2011, amid what the agency describes as uncertainty about where the shots originated. Four days later, it was discovered that at least one of the shots broke the glass of a window on the third level of the mansion, the Secret Service said.
At the time of the 2011 breach, the president and first lady Michelle Obama were away, but their daughters were in Washington — one home and the other due to return that night.
Oscar R. Ortega-Hernandez of Idaho has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for the 2011 incident.
"The president and the first lady, like all parents, are concerned about the safety of their children, but the president and first lady also have confidence in the men and women of the Secret Service to do a very important job, which is to protect the first family, to protect the White House, but also protect the ability of tourists and members of the public to conduct their business or even tour the White House," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Monday.
After the Sept. 19 breach, Pierson ordered a review of the incident and possible changes to security measures at and around the White House. She briefed the president on Thursday.
"The president is interested in the review that they are conducting, and I would anticipate that he'll review whatever it is they — whatever reforms and recommendations they settle upon," Earnest said of the Secret Service's internal review.
Secret Service officers who spotted Gonzalez scaling the fence quickly assessed that he didn't have any weapons in his hands and wasn't wearing clothing that could conceal substantial quantities of explosives, a primary reason agents did not fire their weapons, according to a U.S. official briefed on the investigation.
Gonzalez was on the Secret Service radar as early as July when state troopers arrested him during a traffic stop in southwest Virginia. State troopers there said Gonzalez had an illegal sawed-off shotgun and a map of Washington tucked inside a Bible with a circle around the White House, other monuments and campgrounds. The troopers seized a stash of other weapons and ammunition found during a search of Gonzalez's car after his arrest.
The Secret Service interviewed Gonzalez in July, but had nothing with which to hold him. Gonzalez was released on bail. Then, on Aug. 25, Gonzalez was stopped and questioned again while he was walking along the south fence of the White House. He had a hatchet, but no firearms. His car was searched, but he was not arrested.
"There's a misperception out there that we have some broad detention powers," Ed Donovan, a Secret Service spokesman, said. The Secret Service, like other law enforcement agencies, must have evidence of criminal behavior in order to file charges against someone. "Just because we have a concern about someone doesn't mean we can interview or arrest them or put them in a mental health facility," Donovan said.
Immediately after the breach earlier this month, the Secret Service was considering a number of proposals designed to prevent intruders from breaching the security perimeter around the White House.
A federal law enforcement official told Fox News last week that the discussion of potentially adding checkpoints near the White House are preliminary, and many details would still have to be worked out considering how many other law enforcement agencies have jurisdiction in the areas surrounding the presidential mansion.
The official said the Secret Service is open to anything to improve security at the White House, though no changes are imminent.
Click here to read more from The Washington Post.
Fox News' Ed Henry, Lesa Jansen, Mike Emanuel, Chad Pergram and Wes Barrett, as well as The Associated Press, contributed to this report.
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