There’s never really a good time to play with explosives near the White House, but doing so while local authorities are still on the lookout for a possible suspect in a mass shooting is particularly stupid. At about 6:40 p.m., a man set off a firecracker and threw it over the White House fence. As he tossed a second firecracker onto the North Lawn, he was tackled by three or four Secret Service agents. Politico reports that Alexander Sahagian, 52, was taken into custody and is expected to be charged with throwing a projectile. The Washington Post notes that shortly after the incident the “Fox News/Shep Staff” Twitter handle “confirmed” that there were “shots fired outside the White House just moments ago.” Thankfully, they were wrong, but it’s an inauspicious start for Shepard Smith’s new “breaking news division.”
