Nerves were surely on edge at the White House late Tuesday afternoon when a man driving a gray Honda Civic followed a motorcade transporting the president’s daughters into a restricted area of Pennsylvania Avenue.
Officials quickly moved to put the White House on lockdown at about 4:40 pm while the matter was investigated. The driver was identified by the U.S. Secret Service as 55-year-old Mathew Evan Goldstein, who was taken into custody after he was stopped by uniformed officers at the outer perimeter of a checkpoint at 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue.
Goldstein was charged with unlawful entry, according to a Secret Service spokesperson. A source told CNN that Goldstein holds a pass for the U.S. Treasury building, which sits next to the White House on Pennsylvania Avenue.
The lockdown lasted for about an hour before it was lifted. Journalists viewed video from the scene, which showed the gray Civic with its doors, hood and trunk open as authorities looked in and around it.
The motorcade reportedly was transporting the Obama girls from their school, which is near the White House. The president was in the White House at the time, apparently meeting with Secretary of State John Kerry, according to his schedule.
The incident brought to mind the commotion that occurred last October, when a woman driving a black Infiniti with her 1-year-old child inside hit a security barrier and a Secret Service officer near the White House. After a police pursuit, she was shot and killed by officers near the U.S. Capitol. The child, who wasn’t hurt, was taken into protective custody.
