Gunshots near White House trigger lockdown | 23 May 2026 | Gunshots were heard near the White House on Saturday evening, prompting Secret Service officers to clear the North Lawn and order reporters into the press briefing room, according to media reports and journalists at the scene. NBC News correspondent Julie Tsirkin wrote on X that approximately 20 to 30 shots were heard outside the White House, and that Secret Service officers told those gathered on the North Lawn to run inside. “USSS officers, gun drawn, told us to run inside,” Tsirkin wrote, adding that the White House was “now on lockdown.” A Secret Service official told CNN that the agency was investigating reports of shots fired at the corner of 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest, just outside the White House complex.