U-Haul Truck Driver Arrested For Security Barrier Crash Near White House, Nazi-Flag Found

A 19-year-old man from Chesterfield, Missouri, was arrested on Monday night after crashing a U-Haul truck into a security barrier near the White House. Authorities are investigating the crash as a potential terrorist incident.

According to U.S. Park Police, Sai Varshith Kandula is in custody and facing multiple charges for reckless operation of a motor vehicle; trespassing; destruction of federal property; and threatening to kill, kidnap or inflict harm on a president, vice president or family member.

The U-Haul crashed into the security barriers on the north side of Lafayette Square, near Black Lives Matter Plaza on 16th Street, just before 10 p.m. on Monday night, the Secret Service said. Kandula reportedly stopped on the sidewalk prior to accelerating and crashing into the security bollards. While there were no injuries to any agency or White House personnel, a preliminary investigation revealed that he may have purposefully crashed the truck. Law enforcement sources claim Kandula allegedly made threatening comments about the White House while at the scene of the crash.

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The truck was searched by FBI bomb technicians and a remotely operated police robot, but no explosives or incendiary devices were found, and the truck was deemed safe. While the majority of the truck’s cargo area appeared to be empty, a Park Police officer was later seen taking inventory and packing up items from the U-Haul, which included a red flag with a Nazi symbol, a black backpack and a roll of duct tape.

Many social media users have taken to various platforms to criticize law enforcement and the media for over-dramatizing Monday night’s events. “He hit the barrier at like 3mph. The media – ‘tense moments in the nations capital’,” a YouTube user wrote on Tuesday.

“So… a man drove an empty uhaul at slow speeds into a Whitehouse barricade, gave himself up immediately and had nicely pressed Nazi flag on him to lay out for a picnic blanket?… I don’t understand at all why some people think this is staged. 🤔,” another Twitter user wrote.

Whether Kandula has a lawyer and when he will appear in court are yet to be determined.