On November 11, 2011, Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez, an unemployed 21-year-old man, fired multiple shots at the White House using a semi-automatic rifle.

Michelle Obama learned of the shooting from an usher, then summoned Mark J. Sullivan, director of the Secret Service, to find out why the first family had not been informed.

In September 2014, The Washington Post published an investigative report detailing errors that the Secret Service made on the night of the shooting that led to the crime going undiscovered.

[3] According to friends, Ortega-Hernandez had become increasingly paranoid before leaving, saying that the United States government was controlling citizens and that President Barack Obama "had to be stopped".

[3] Ortega-Hernandez arrived in Washington on November 9 with 180 rounds of ammunition and a Romanian-made Cugir WASR semiautomatic rifle that he had purchased from a gun shop in Idaho.

[5] One bullet hit an antique window on the White House's second floor near the first family's formal living room; however, it did not penetrate the bulletproof glass on the inside.

One bullet lodged in a window frame, and others ricocheted off the roof, causing small pieces of wood and concrete to fall to the ground.

[2] A woman in a taxi nearby witnessed the shooting and wrote on Twitter, "Driver in front of my cab STOPPED and fired 5 gun shots at the White House.

A supervisor then decided that the noises were backfires from a nearby construction site and told the agents, "No shots have been fired ... stand down", to the surprise of several officers.

[6] According to Carol D. Leonnig, agents who thought the building had been fired upon "were largely ignored", with one reporting she had been afraid to doubt her superior's assertion.

By the end of the night, it was confirmed that a shooting had occurred, although the Secret Service believed that gunfire was not aimed at the White House, but rather was the result of a gang fight nearby.

According to Leonnig, the first lady was "furious", wondering why the director of the Secret Service, Mark J. Sullivan, who had accompanied her on her flight back to Washington, had not told her about it.

[2][7] Leonnig also stated that Sullivan was subsequently summoned to a meeting with the first lady, during which she raised her voice so loudly she could be heard through the closed door.

[2][7] Three years later, in September 2014, Carol D. Leonnig from The Washington Post released an investigative report describing the details of the Secret Service's "bungled" response following the shooting.

[9] It was the first shooting at the White House since Francisco Martin Duran's fired shots at President Bill Clinton from the fence overlooking the north lawn on October 29, 1994.

[5] On November 13, the United States Park Police obtained a warrant for Ortega-Hernandez's arrest based on weapons charges regarding his abandoned rifle, although he was still not suspected of shooting at the White House.