US prosecutors filed an assault charge today against an emotionally disturbed Indiana accountant who this week allegedly opened fire outside the White House before being shot by a Secret Service agent.
Mr Robert Pickett (47) of Evansville, Indiana, was charged with assaulting, resisting or impeding a federal officer and could face 10 years in prison if found guilty, said Mr Channing Phillips, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's office.
The offense also carries a fine of up to $250,000.
Mr Pickett was not present in the U.S. District Court in Washington D.C. when the charge was filed.
He is recovering in a local hospital from surgery after being shot in the knee by a Secret Service agent when he brandished a weapon outside the White House fence on Wednesday, causing panic among tourists and bystanders.
Phillips said Mr Pickett would appear in court on his release from George Washington University hospital, probably next week, to hear the charges against him.
The court is likely to appoint a lawyer to represent Mr Pickett and will also order a preliminary psychiatric evaluation to determine whether he is mentally competent to stand trial.
Since Wednesday's shooting, a picture has emerged of Mr Pickett as a severely depressed man who held a long-standing grudge against the Internal Revenue Service, where he worked until he was fired in the late 1980s.
In a letter written by Mr Pickett to the IRS, he blamed the tax office for his emotional problems.
My death is on your hands, he wrote in the letter, dated February 2nd and published in several newspapers. The letter was also sent to the president and the U.S. Attorney General.
At no time was President George W. Bush, who was in the White House at the time, in any danger, the Secret Service said after the incident.
However, the shooting has rekindled debate over whether Mr Bush should reopen the stretch of Pennsylvania Avenue on the northern side of the White House.
It was closed in 1995 after the Oklahoma City bombing raised fears of a similar attack in Washington.
Reuters