Detectives in suburban Philadelphia continued to investigate the shooting of a White House fence jumper after he slashed a sheriff’s deputy inside the Chester County Justice Center.
Five months after his arrest for scaling a wall of the White House, a sheriff's deputy shot and killed Curtis Smith inside the courthouse at 201 W Market St. in West Chester, Pennsylvania late Tuesday morning.
"I'm gonna get ya! I'm gonna get ya!" Smith yelled as he entered the building and tried to rush past metal detectors, according to witness Reiley Aikman.
Chester County detectives would reveal the findings of their investigation into the deadly shooting on Thursday, the county said.
On Tuesday, District Attorney Tom Hogan identified Smith as the same man who allegedly jumped the outer perimeter of the White House back in March and was detained by Secret Service.
Hogan said "the sheriffs did their jobs, the lockdown went perfectly."
Smith was set to face burglary, assault and harassment charges at a preliminary hearing -- that has been continued multiple times -- in October stemming from a May domestic assault arrest, according to court records. He also pleaded guilty in late May to traffic violations.
Attorney Lewis Hannah III, who represented Smith in the domestic violence case, called his client's death "really tragic."
"He was a truck driver," Hannah said. "He worked every day, had a family, a wife, you know, you would have never have thought.”
