A reporter has gone viral for her unfazed reaction to a shooting near the White House on Saturday.
NBC reporter Julie Tsirkin was reporting from Washington DC when a gunman approached a White House security checkpoint and opened fire.
Julie was preparing to film a segment for the broadcaster when shots rang out, and she turned, visibly confused, to her cameraman.
‘What is that?’ she asked, keeping her cool as she looked around to see what was going on.
Speaking after the incident, she explained: ‘My cameraman, John, and I heard what sounded like 20 to 30 gunshots. We looked at each other and said, “What is that?”
‘I ended up running after that. I saw a Secret Service agent come out of a security booth, gun drawn, telling all of us to run inside the press briefing room.’
Julie was praised online for her calm demeanour, with one user affectionately branding her a ‘diva’ for keeping a cool head.
The suspect – named as Nasire Best, 21 – ‘pulled a weapon from his bag and began firing at posted officers’ shortly after 6pm local time (11pm GMT), the US Secret Service said in a statement late on Saturday.
Officers returned fire and hit the suspect, who was transported to an area hospital where he later died.
A bystander was also struck and was in a critical condition, but a law enforcement official said it was not clear whether that person was struck by the suspect’s initial bullets or those fired subsequently by officers.
The Secret Service said none of its officers were injured and that Donald Trump, who was at the White House at the time, was not ‘impacted’.
In a post on his Truth Social platform, the president thanked the Secret Service and law enforcement officers for their ‘swift and professional action’ and said the suspect had a ‘violent history’.
Journalists working at the White House on Saturday reported hearing a series of gunshots and were told to seek shelter inside the press briefing room.
In a post shared on X, the senior White House correspondent for ABC News, Selina Wang, shared dramatic video of the moment she said she heard what ‘sounded like dozens of gunshots’ and ducked for cover.
She said she had been filming herself on a mobile phone for a social media post about Trump’s statements earlier on Saturday surrounding a potential deal with Iran.
As the sounds of gunfire were in the background, her eyes grew wider, and she ducked down in the media tent, which is among those situated in a line along the White House driveway where broadcasters film their reports.
The scene is near where a gunman ambushed two members of the West Virginia National Guard last November.
US Army Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, 20, died from her wounds. Andrew Wolfe, then 24, was critically wounded. Rahmanullah Lakanwal has been charged in that incident.
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