An unarmed man who tried to climb the north fence of the White House Christmas Day has been charged with unlawful entry and making felonious threats to arresting officers, a Secret Service spokesman said Monday.
ABC reported police had visited Lolando Bello's home before the White House incident, but would not disclose the nature of those visits.President Clinton and his family were inside the White House when the Secret Service apprehended the 19-year-old suspect attempting to scale the White House fence, authorities said.
"Somebody grabbed him hanging from the fence," a spokesman for the Secret Service said. "He was not armed and we don't know what he was up to."
The witnesses said the man stopped the climb of his own accord. Authorities said Bello was charged with unlawful entry and making felonious threats to the officers who arrested him.
The Secret Service handles about half a dozen cases of "fence-hoppers" and others trying to get onto the White House grounds each year, but the issue is particularly sensitive now because of a rash of recent incidents.
Last Tuesday, a U.S. Park Police officer shot and killed Marcelino Corniel, 33, a homeless man, when he brandished a large hunting knife in front of the White House.
Earlier this month, gunmen fire shots at the White House in two separate incidents. A Colorado man has been charged in one of the incidents.