Security on edge after drive-by shooting outside Bidens home

WILMINGTON, Del. Law enforcement officials have boosted security at the Delaware home of Vice President Joe Biden after several gunshots rang out from a vehicle speeding by the property over the weekend.

The vice president and his wife were not at their Wilmington home Saturday night when the shots were fired and there were no reports of injuries, authorities said Sunday.

Bidens office said the vice president and his wife, Jill Biden, were briefed Saturday night, as was President Barack Obama. Bidens office referred all other questions to the Secret Service. The vice president was set to speak Monday morning in Wilmington at a Martin Luther King Jr. breakfast organized by a minority womens group.

Secret Service spokesman Robert Hoback said the shots were fired at about 8:25 p.m. Saturday on a public road outside the homes secure perimeter. Bidens home is several hundred yards from the road. Secret Service personnel stationed at the top of the long, winding driveway leading to Bidens home heard the shots, saw the vehicle drive past the home at a high rate of speed and flee the scene.

A security official stands at the end of the driveway leading to Vice President Joe Bidens home Sunday.Photo: AP

Young Cho, who lives two houses up from the Bidens, told The Associated Press by telephone that he heard several gunshots Saturday evening.

We heard the shots, four of them, Cho said. But next door there is always Secret Service so I wasnt too worried. I feel really safe here. But it was really strange, to hear those kinds of shots next to the vice presidents house.

Bidens home is nestled in a heavily wooded neighborhood of stately stone-and-brick homes along a curving two-lane road that winds through rolling hills. Bidens home is not visible from the road, but a gatehouse cottage, occupied by the Secret Service, sits just yards from the main road, in front of a driveway blocked off by security vehicles.

Authorities searched outside the Biden residence and nearby homes to determine whether any rounds hit anything. Police said they also received a report of shots fired in the area of nearby Hoopes Reservoir, a source of fresh water for Wilmington.

On Sunday afternoon, half a dozen sport utility vehicles were parked near the entrance of the Bidens property, providing a heavy security presence.

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Security on edge after drive-by shooting outside Bidens home