By SARAH MASLIN NIR Published: November 11, 2011

Shots were fired from at least one car about a block away from the White House Friday night, and a loaded AK-47 assault rifle was recovered from the scene, the Secret Service said. The episode does not appear to be connected to the White House. President Obama was in California and Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. was in New York for Veterans Day observances, according to their public schedules. Secret Service officers heard gunfire near Constitution Avenue and 16th Street around 9 p.m., said Ed Donovan, a spokesman for the Secret Service. Two cars drove off west on the avenue before one, a black Honda, was found abandoned near 23rd Street, Mr. Donovan said. Witnesses told officers that a man fled the car on foot. Officers found the loaded assault rifle in the car, Mr. Donovan said. The authorities were searching for the people who may have been involved.



A version of this brief appeared in print on November 12, 2011, on page A13 of the New York edition with the headline: Shots Fired Near White House.



http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/12/us/shots-fired-near-white-house.html?_r=1

QUESTION

Why is there a propensity, or rather a proclivity for these AK-47 Rifles to show up everywhere around the world? Is this a CONSPIRACY? Are these the same weapons now called (que la gente se llenan la boca diciendo KALASHNAAKOFF) Kalashnikovs?


I wonder, hmm?
The U.S. makes the M16 and a civilian version the AR15;



Why are these not as common?

CONSPIRACY?

Well............ I wonder, I just dont know, sometimes I wonder.................

Guillermone,
What else can it be? The Russian or Soviet (USSR) invented and manufactured weapon the AK 47, has the become the rifle of preference for revolutions around the globe, the most popular assault weapon for terrorists,, drug traffickers and urban guerrillas swear by it. What's up with that? Are they selling them at Wallmart at rockbottom prices? Or is there an International operation distributing these firearms as if they were loaves of bread? Think about, B? What's the story behind this phenomenon? Are the AK47 manufacturers offering an incentive, something similar to the South Korean Hyundai and Kia offering 100.000 mile warranty?.

That's what I'm referring to.

Don't want to stray or deviate from this incident's focus; But, I did find some info that confirms my hunch about the ever increasing presence of AK 47's;
So, I started a new thread here: http://www.dominicantoday.com/dr/forum/dominicans-abroad/other-places/5327/Meet-the-new-death-dealers#post160528

After Bullet Hits White House, a Manhunt and Arrest


Haraz N. Ghanbari/Associated Press
Law enforcement officers photographed a window at the White House on Wednesday, as seen from the South Lawn.

By CHARLIE SAVAGE, BRIAN KNOWLTON and MARK LANDLER
Published: November 16, 2011


WASHINGTON — Federal law enforcement authorities on Wednesday arrested a 21-year-old Idaho man suspected of shooting with a semiautomatic rifle at the White House on Friday night, as the Secret Service reported finding that at least one bullet had indeed struck the presidential residence.



Oscar Ramiro Ortega.
U.S. Park Police, via Associated Press


The Secret Service said that the suspect, Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez, was arrested at a hotel near Indiana, Pa., at approximately 12:35 p.m. by the Pennsylvania State Police, acting on information from Secret Service agents in Pittsburgh.

“Ortega-Hernandez is currently in the custody of the Pennsylvania State Police,” the statement said.

The man, previously referred to in a warrant as Oscar Ramiro Ortega, has a background of legal problems and is said to have a history of aberrant behavior. During an encounter earlier in the day on Friday with the police in nearby Arlington County, Va., he said he was from Idaho Falls. The police there said he had been reported missing last month by his family.

Gunfire was heard in the vicinity of the White House late Friday night, and a man abandoned a car several blocks away, fleeing on foot and leaving behind an AK-47 semiautomatic rifle. It was not clear for several days that someone had deliberately fired at the White House.

Investigators have been examining evidence found in the car and talking with relatives of Mr. Ortega.

Another law enforcement official, Sgt. David Schlosser of the Park Police, said that any motive would not be clear “until we can talk to this guy.” The Park Police had already issued an arrest warrant charging Mr. Ortega with a felony count of carrying a deadly weapon.

The Park Police had also released photographs showing that Mr. Ortega had distinctive tattoos, including the word “Israel” on the left side of his neck. He is also said to have three dots tattooed on his right hand, the name “Ortega” on his back, rosary beads and hands clasped in prayer on his right chest and folded hands on his left chest.

The photographs had been taken earlier on Friday by the police in Arlington County, who stopped Mr. Ortega after someone reported a man outside was circling the area in a suspicious manner. Lieutenant Joe Kantor, a county police spokesman said that Mr. Ortega was on foot at the time and “there was no crime,” so there had been no reason to arrest him.

Sgt. Schlosser said Mr. Ortega had criminal records in Idaho, Texas, and Utah, including for drugs, underage drinking, domestic violence, resisting arrest and assault on a police officer. Public records indicated much the same thing.

Secret Service agents heard multiple shots on Friday and witnessed a car speeding away, westbound, on Constitution Avenue, according to a Secret Service official. The car and a semiautomatic assault weapon were found, abandoned, at a corner of Constitution Avenue and 23rd Street within a couple of minutes, this official said.

The Secret Service said that one bullet had been stopped by the reinforced windows installed inside the historic exterior glass used at the White House. One additional round has been found outside, and agents were continuing to search for any other rounds. President Obama and the first lady, Michelle Obama, were away on Friday, when the shots were heard shortly after 9 p.m.; Mr. Obama was in San Diego on his way to an Asia-Pacific economic forum in Hawaii, and is now in Australia.

The shooting came from roughly 600 or 800 yards south of the White House, just outside the outer security perimeter of the White House complex, a heavily patrolled zone that extends to the south edge of the Ellipse. The spot, usually open to the public, is nonetheless one of the most guarded parts of the city — or of the country, for that matter — with United States Park Police patrolling the National Mall and District of Columbia police on the streets.

In addition, the Secret Service, with a uniformed force of 1,400 officers, has agents on guard at fixed positions on the White House grounds, as well as patrolling nearby in cars and on bicycles. Streets are routinely shut down for motorcades to pass. The Secret Service said its security worked effectively on Friday evening, though it planned to “scrutinize how can make it better,” an official said.

On Wednesday, the Secret Service continued to comb the south lawn of the White House for further rounds of ammunition. The official did not exclude that there were more than two shots fired. The Secret Service did not have records of the suspect before the episode, he said.

Late on Friday, the police searched the Occupy DC protest camp, on McPherson Square just blocks from the White House, after reports that the suspect might have spent time there. Protesters there said on Monday that the police had been through their encampment several times since then, showing around a photograph of Mr. Ortega.

Arlington County police checked on a vacant home near where they had encountered Mr. Ortega several times over the weekend. Lt. Kantor said neighbors had speculated on a neighborhood e-mail Listserv that he might have been squatting there, leading to local media reports, and so police checked it out. But he was not found and there was no evidence, like food wrappers, indicating anyone had been living there.

The Secret Service statement said that the sounds of gunfire on Friday were heard in the area around the Ellipse, a grassy area where the national Christmas tree is displayed each year just south of the White House; it is across Constitution Avenue from the more distant Washington Monument.

That would seem to place the firing spot 700 to 800 yards from the White House.

While an AK-47 can send a bullet about that far, the range at which it is considered effective is far less.

Several agencies have been investigating the matter, including the Park Police; the Federal Bureau of Investigation; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and the District of Columbia Police Department.

The Secret Service said it was tipped off to the suspect’s whereabouts from a person at the hotel in Indiana who recognized a photograph of him and called the Pittsburgh field office. The field office then alerted the Pennsylvania State Police, which dispatched troopers to the hotel. Investigators established his route by talking to people who knew him, an official at the Secret Service said, and circulated photos of him to several hotels in the area. The investigation involved all of the Secret Service’s 122 field offices in the United States, the official said.

The last known episode in which bullets struck the White House occurred in 1994, when one round fired from the area of the Ellipse penetrated a first-floor window and landed in the State Dining Room, and another was found in a Christmas tree near the South Portico. President Clinton and his wife and daughter were sleeping upstairs at the time. No one was hurt.

The episode came as a review of White House security was already under way.


Emma G. Fitzsimmons contributed reporting for New York.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/17/us/bullet-that-struck-the-white-house-is-found.html?_r=1&emc=na&pagewanted=all