A U.S. Secret Service vehicle caught fire outside the White House on Monday, just before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was supposed to meet with President Donald Trump in person.
The car was parked close to 18th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, where agents were helping to close the roads for the prime minister’s arrival. A spokesperson said that the fire started in the back seat of the SUV.
Amanda Head, a White House correspondent for Just the News, witnessed the strange event, and the police are still investigating it.
Photos from the site show fire vehicles coming to put out the fire, which was contained inside the car as smoke poured out of the front passenger door. It looked like the fire was out just before 11 a.m. on Monday.
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This incident occurred one day after a gunman opened fire inside a Latter-day Saints church in Michigan, killing at least four people and injuring eight others, including children, before setting the building ablaze.
Officials confirmed that the gunman had fatally shot two of the victims and discovered two others inside the burned structure.
Investigators issued a warning, predicting an increase in the death toll due to the unaccounted-for status of several individuals and the possibility of finding additional victims among the rubble.
The fire reduced the church to its foundation, complicating recovery efforts. Emergency crews suspended the search late Sunday night and are expected to resume clearing debris early Monday morning.
Officials said they do not yet know how many parishioners remain unaccounted for. A source familiar with the investigation told CNN the number could be as high as seven, though that estimate may include survivors who have not yet been able to contact their families.
FBI Director Kash Patel noted he was monitoring the situation and had been briefed on the attack.
Hundreds of worshippers had gathered inside the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc Township when gunfire erupted. Moments later, images captured the building engulfed in flames, its frame swallowed by thick smoke and fire.
“We do believe there were people up there who were near that fire, and they were unable to get out of the church. So we do believe that we will have additional victims once we’re able to search that,” Grand Blanc Township Police Chief William Renye told reporters.
Police said the gunman, identified as 40-year-old Tomas Jacob Sanford, drove his pickup truck through the church’s front doors around 10:25 a.m. before opening fire with an assault-style rifle. The vehicle had two large American flags in its bed and deer antlers mounted on the front bumper.
Sanford was killed in an exchange of gunfire with a Grand Blanc Township police officer and a Michigan Department of Natural Resources officer who arrived on the scene within seconds of the first 911 calls.
Officials said the suspect was neutralized roughly eight minutes after the attack began, the New York Post reported.
Authorities said eight gunshot victims remained hospitalized Sunday night, including one in critical condition, according to Grand Blanc Township Police Chief Ron Renye.
James Deir, special agent in charge with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, said investigators believe Sanford used gasoline to ignite the blaze. He added that “suspected explosive devices” were also recovered at the scene, The Post noted.
Witnesses described the chaos that followed the truck’s crash into the building. Congregant Kristin Juarez, 54, told The New York Times she initially thought the chapel’s steeple had collapsed before gunfire erupted inside the church, located about 60 miles northwest of Detroit.
She said she became separated from her husband and hid in a bathroom until she heard him calling her name.
“I thought, ‘If I have to die, it’s OK,’” Juarez told reporters. “I feel good about where I am,” she added as she described her thought process upon hearing her husband’s voice.
John Juarez, 57, said he helped carry an injured congregant outside before returning to the sanctuary, where he saw another victim lying on the floor with a gunshot wound.