The head of the Secret Service has resigned after a series of security lapses（疏忽）allowed a man with a knife to run through the halls of the White House and a convicted（有前科的）guard with a gun to follow President Barack Obama into a lift.
Julia Pierson’s resignation was announced hours after it was found that a security guard with previous convictions for assault（袭击）was allowed to ride in a lift with Mr Obama during a visit to Atlanta last month. Agents stopped the man after he started taking photographs of Mr Obama and only realized while questioning him that he had been carrying a gun just feet away from the President.
Ms Pierson’s position became difficult after the Atlanta incident was exposed by the Washington Post, but her leadership was already under fire for a September 19 incident when Omar Gonzalez, climbed the White House fence and ran through the unlocked door of the office building.
The Secret Service initially claimed that he was unarmed and had been stopped just inside the White House. It was later uncovered that he was carrying a three-inch knife and ran through much of the first floor before finally being controlled.
Ms Pierson admitted earlier this week that her agents had twice interviewed and released Gonzalez in the weeks before he climbed the White House fence.
On July 21, police in Virginia pulled Gonzalez over and searched his car. Inside were 11 guns, including high-powered rifles with scopes and shotguns, and “one map of Washington DC with writing and a line drawn to the White House”.
He was interviewed by Secret Service agents after the arrest, who determined that he was suffering mental health issues but did not consider him to be a threat. He was released and not kept under observation.
On August 25, he was found hanging around at the southern fence of the White House with a hatchet inserted into the waistband of his trousers. Gonzalez said he was carrying the hatchet because he had been on a camping trip.
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