WASHINGTON ? A bullet hit an exterior window of the White House but was stopped by ballistic glass, and the Secret Service was investigating Wednesday whether the incident is connected to shots fired nearby last week.
An additional round of ammunition was found on the White House exterior. The bullets were found Tuesday morning.
A spokesman for the Secret Service, Edwin Donovan, declined to answer additional questions about the incident including the caliber of the recovered bullets or what room of the White House was behind the window that was hit, citing an ongoing criminal investigation.
The discovery follows reports of gunfire near the White House on Friday night. Witnesses heard shots and saw two speeding vehicles in the area. An assault rifle was also recovered.
President Barack Obama, who was headed to a summit in Hawaii, was not at the home at the time of the shooting.
The Secret Service said it has not conclusively connected Friday's incident with the bullets found at the White House. Previously, authorities had said the White House did not appear to have been targeted Friday night.
U.S. Park Police have an arrest warrant for Oscar Ramiro Ortega, who is believed to be connected to the earlier incident. He is described as a 21-year-old Hispanic man, 5 feet 11 inches tall, 160 pounds, with a medium build, brown eyes and black hair.
Donovan, the Secret Service spokesman, identified the suspect as Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez, saying that is the name on his driver's license.
Ortega is believed to be living in the Washington area with ties to Idaho.
After the gunfire was reported, police said they found an abandoned car Friday night near the Theodore Roosevelt Bridge that crosses the Potomac River to Virginia.
U.S. Park Police spokesman Sgt. David Schlosser has said items found in the vehicle led investigators to Ortega. The suspect hasn't been linked to any radical organizations but does have an arrest record in three states, Schlosser said Monday.
Arlington Police Lt. Joe Kantor said Ortega was stopped Friday morning in north Arlington after a citizen called in a report of somebody "circling the area."
When police stopped Ortega, he was on foot and had an out of state address, Kantor said. Police took photos of him but had no cause to detain him, Kantor said.
The photos show Ortega has some distinctive tattoos that could help in the search. Most prominently, the word "Israel" is tattooed on the left side of his neck. He also has the word "Ortega" tattooed on his back, according to Park Police. Police say he has a tattoo of three dots on his right hand and tattoos of rosary beads, hands clasped in prayer and folded hands on his chest.
In 2010, there were a series of pre-dawn shootings at military buildings in the Washington area, including the Pentagon and the National Museum of the Marine Corps. Police charged a Marine Corps reservist with those shootings earlier this year. The suspect, Yonathan Melaku of Alexandria, Va., remains in custody.
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