Curtis Smith, the man who jumped the White House fence five months ago, was shot and killed at the Chester County Justice Center Tuesday after he attacked a sheriff's deputy with a knife.
Smith allegedly charged past a metal detector and slashed the deputy at the
justice center around 11:50 a.m., authorities told NBC Philadelphia. Another deputy fired on the 34-year-old.
He was transported to Paoli Hospital, where doctors pronounced him dead.
"Curtis Smith, from Coatesville, came directly into the Justice Center and pulled out a knife and attacked a deputy sheriff, slashing him," District Attorney Tom Hogan said in a statement.
Authorities told the Philadelphia Inquirer that Smith was experiencing domestic problems at home before being arrested for scaling a wall at the White House. Officials said that they do not know what specifically motivated Smith to act the way he did on Tuesday.
Smith, who had no previous criminal record or history of mental illness, could have had the misdemeanor fence jumping charge dismissed if he avoided any other trouble, according to the Inquirer.
The Chester County deputy who was injured, 22-year-old Kevin Brough, was flown to a trauma unit, where he is listed in stable condition.
"We have learned how to deal with an
attack at the courthouse," Hogan told the Daily Times. "The sheriffs did their job and the lockdown worked perfectly."
Chester County Sheriff Carolyn Welsh told the Daily Times that deputies are in charge of security at the Justice Center and other county offices a block from the center. The shooting was the most serious security breach in the county's history.
Sonni Walton, Smith's cousin, told the Philadelphia Daily News that Smith was still distraught over the 2012 death of his father by his brother, and believed the White House incident and Tuesday's attack was a suicide-by-cop attempt.
"He definitely was distraught. Curtis had been crying out for help, but everyone had been ignoring him," Walton said. "The jumping the White House fence was an attempted suicide."
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