The man who breached security at the White House this month raced through several rooms on the main floor, penetrating farther into the building than previously disclosed, a Republican congressman said on Monday, according to The Washington Post.
Representative Jason Chaffetz, who chairs a House subcommittee on national security oversight, told CNN an alarm box near the front entrance had been muted, leaving interior personnel unaware of the intrusion before the suspect burst through the open front door, the Post reported.
"I have deep concerns that the president is not as safe as we want and need him to be," Chaffetz said on CNN, according to the Post.
The suspect, Omar Gonzalez, 42, a decorated Iraq war veteran, was charged with unlawfully entering a restricted building or grounds while carrying a deadly or dangerous weapon, the Post reported.
Officials said he was carrying a knife when he jumped the White House fence and entered the executive mansion on Sept. 19, according to the Post.
Chaffetz said his information on the wild chase through the executive mansion came from whistleblowers interviewed during his congressional investigation into the incident, the Post reported.
"The Secret Service has no comment on that at this time due to the ongoing investigation," Brian Leary, a spokesman for the agency, said, according to the Post.
The Post said Gonzalez ran past a guard immediately inside the door, past the stairway leading up to the living quarters for President Barack Obama and his family and into the East Room, where he was tackled at the far end of the room by an agent.
The officer posted inside the door appeared to be delayed in learning the intruder was about to come through, the Post reported. Officers are trained to lock the front door immediately if they learn of an intruder on the grounds.
A prosecutor said in court last week that officers found more than 800 rounds of ammunition, two hatchets and a machete in Gonzalez' car, according to the Post.
Gonzalez had been arrested in July with a sniper rifle and a map on which the executive mansion was marked, the prosecutor said, the Post reported.
