Pat Dollard

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WASHINGTON – UPDATE: The Secret Service says the man wanted in connection with Friday’s shooting near the White House has been taken into custody.

Authorities say Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez was arrested at a hotel near Indiana, Pa. at about 12:35 p.m. Wednesday afternoon and is currently in the custody of Pennsylvania State Police.

WASHINGTON – UPDATE: Authorities are investigating two bullets that hit the White House, one of them apparently cracking a window on the residential level where President Barack Obama and his family live.

The Secret Service was investigating Wednesday whether the shots were connected to reports of shots fired last week while Obama was headed to a summit in Hawaii. The Secret Service said it discovered the bullets Tuesday.

Federal officials have now set up a joint task force to investigate last week’s shooting. Local police have been warned the suspect should be considered unstable.

Lindsay Godwin, a spokeswoman for the FBI’s Washington Field Office, tells WTOP the task force includes the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Metropolitan Police Department, U.S. Park Police and Secret Service.

The Secret Service continues to look for evidence on the grounds of the White House. On Wednesday, officials could be seen taking photographs of a window on the south face of the executive mansion. The window is in the center of the rounded portico.

No one was injured when the shots were fired.

“An assessment of the exterior of the White House is ongoing,” Secret Service spokesperson Ed Donovan says in a statement emailed to reporters.

“A round was stopped by ballistic glass behind the historic exterior glass,” he says. “One additional round has been found on the exterior of the White House. This damage has not been conclusively connected to Friday’s incident.”

The discovery follows reports of gunfire near the White House on Friday night. Witnesses heard shots and saw two speeding vehicles in the area. An assault rifle was also recovered.

Sources familiar with the investigation say the task force will meet Wednesday to coordinate the investigation. Local police agencies in the area are helping in the search for the man suspected of firing the shots.

U.S. Park Police identified him as Oscar Ramiro Ortega, 21. Park Police have a warrant charging him with carrying a dangerous weapon, a felony.

A Secret Service spokesman identified the suspect as Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez, saying that is the name on his driver’s license.

Ortega is believed to be living in the Washington area with ties to Idaho, and police in that state are working with federal officials to find him. Idaho Falls Police Department spokeswoman Joelyn Hansen says Ortega’s family reported him missing Oct. 31.

Hansen says they received word Friday that Ortega was well when police in Arlington stopped him after a citizen reported someone “circling the area.” Arlington Police Lt. Joe Kantor said when police stopped Ortega, he was on foot and had an out of state address. Police took photos of him but had no cause to detain him, Kantor said.

Police agencies are being told to consider Ortega dangerous and unstable. He is described as Hispanic, 5 feet 11 inches tall, 160 pounds, with a medium build, brown eyes and black hair.

He has several very distinctive tattoos. On his right hand, he has three dots. On his upper back, he has one that says, “Ortega.” The tattoo on the right side of his chest is of rosary beads and hands clasped in prayer. He also has a tattoo of folded hands on the left side of his chest, and “Israel” tattooed on the left side of his neck.

After the Friday gunfire was reported, police said they found an abandoned car Friday night near the Theodore Roosevelt Bridge that crosses the Potomac River to Virginia.

U.S. Park Police spokesman Sgt. David Schlosser has said items found in the vehicle led investigators to Ortega. The suspect hasn’t been linked to any radical organizations but does have an arrest record in three states, Schlosser said Monday.