Bystander wounded near White House still recovering after shooting

Benjamin Del Real is still recovering from the gunshot wound that sent him to surgery after an exchange of fire a few blocks from the White House. The 25-year-old active-duty Army soldier has been receiving therapy at an undisclosed location, a reminder that the cost of the breach did not end when the shooting stopped.

Del Real was wounded on May 23 near a Secret Service checkpoint close to 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, where a man approached and began firing shortly after 6 p.m. ET. The Secret Service said the White House was briefly placed on lockdown, that no officers were injured and that President Donald Trump was not impacted. The gunman, Nasire Best, 21, was killed during the exchange.

What remains unsettled is a basic question of responsibility: whether Del Real was struck by the attacker or by Secret Service return fire. Ballistics testing has not publicly resolved that issue, and the Metropolitan Police Department has kept the investigation open. Metropolitan Police Internal Affairs is handling the case and is expected to turn findings over to the U.S. attorney’s office.

The shooting also sits inside a broader pattern of repeated encounters near the presidential perimeter. Best had already come to the attention of White House security in June 2025, when he was blocked from an entry lane, and again in July 2025, when court records say he ignored commands, said he wanted to be arrested and was later sent for a mental evaluation. Court records also show that a stay-away order was later issued barring him from the White House area.

That history has sharpened attention on how warning signs are handled around one of the most heavily guarded sites in the country. The Secret Service says it protects the president, the vice president, their families, the White House and other national leaders, and its threat-assessment center says it supports that mission with research and guidance. The May 23 shooting, which came amid what officials described as a third gunfire incident in the vicinity of Trump in about a month, left the agency facing questions not only about force, but about what happened before the shots were fired and why the danger was allowed to reach the perimeter at all.