OAN Staff Brooke Mallory
5:50 PM – Friday, May 29, 2026
A federal grand jury has indicted a Texas man in connection with a violent shootout with U.S. Secret Service agents earlier this month on the National Mall, an incident that unfolded just steps from Vice President JD Vance’s departing motorcade.
Michael Marx, 45, of Midland, Texas, was formally indicted in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on charges of assaulting certain officers using a dangerous weapon and using a firearm during a crime of violence.
Federal prosecutors revealed that Marx, who also utilizes the aliases “Patrick Gary Michael” and “Michael Zavici,” brought a handgun into a heavily trafficked tourist corridor before opening fire on law enforcement.
The incident began on the afternoon of May 4, 2026, at approximately 3:40 p.m., when a plainclothes Secret Service agent noticed a man appearing to conceal a firearm on the right side of his body near 15th Street and Madison Drive NW.
The agent immediately alerted the Secret Service Joint Operations Center and requested uniformed backup. Simultaneously, Vance’s motorcade was leaving the White House complex, traveling through the nearby intersection of 15th Street and Independence Avenue SW.
When uniformed Secret Service officers located Marx and attempted to approach him, he ignored verbal commands and fled toward a crowd of civilians crossing the street. During a brief foot pursuit heading east on Independence Avenue, Marx drew a Sig Sauer P365 9mm handgun from his waistband.
Upon reaching the sidewalk, he reportedly turned and fired directly at a pursuing officer. The bullet missed the agent but struck an innocent teenage bystander in the leg, who was visiting the National Mall with his family.
Secret Service agents returned fire, striking Marx multiple times in the hand, left arm, and upper abdomen. He collapsed at the intersection, where officers quickly rendered first aid and recovered his loaded weapon. Authorities later determined that Marx had a prior 2011 drug trafficking conviction in Florida and did not possess a license to carry a firearm in Washington, D.C.
While being transported by ambulance to George Washington University Hospital, Marx reportedly behaved aggressively, spitting at officers and making several statements, including “Kill me, kill me, kill me” and “F— the White House.”
U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro condemned the brazen daylight shooting, emphasizing that the Department of Justice will pursue the maximum penalties available when gun violence “threatens the heart of American democracy” and puts families and officials at immediate risk.
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