Pa. neighbors of man shot near White House: 'This is really bizarre'

ASHLAND, Pa. — Kim O'Neill was at her son’s baseball game on Friday in this small, rural borough of just more than 2,700 people about 60 miles northeast of the Pennsylvania capital when the calls started coming in.

They were from her neighbors. "Check the Internet," they said.

That’s because hours before, the Secret Service shot a man who lives down the street from O’Neill after the agency said he refused to drop a gun outside the White House complex. As of Sunday, the man, whom law enforcement sources have identified as Jesse Oliveri, remained in critical condition at George Washington University Hospital in Washington.

“I couldn’t believe it,” said O’Neill, 42, a nurse educator who lives in nearby Butler Township, about a half-mile down the road from where Oliveri had been staying. “I just didn’t realize the impact that it would have on this little area.”

Days after the shooting, some neighbors and other people in the area struggled to recall much about Oliveri. For those who did, they described him as quiet — someone who kept to himself.

Bill Halko, 49, a physical therapist, has lived at his home less than five minutes from Oliveri for about 20 years. Halko said the family is respectful, but doesn’t socialize much with the rest of the neighborhood.

Oliveri never caused any issues and didn't appear to be a violent person, Halko said.

On the day of the shooting, Halko said his wife, Patty, saw the man getting back from work at about 6:30 a.m. It wasn’t different than any other day of the week.

“For him to do something like this is really bizarre,” Halko said. “I don’t know what motivated him.”

President Obama was away from the White House, golfing at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, when the shooting took place. Meanwhile, Vice President Joe Biden was at the White House complex.

No one answered the door at Oliveri’s home, which sits on a winding road that’s lined with tall trees in a secluded area. The blinds were shuttered, and a green Toyota 4Runner sat in the gravel driveway. A broom leaned against the door, and there was an empty clothesline in the backyard.

The area is surrounded by mountains. The house is also less than 15 minutes from Centralia, an abandoned town where an underground coal seam fire has burned since the early 1960s.

Growing up, David Chuplis, 33, said he and Oliveri hung out together with the same group of friends.

Chuplis, a laborer from the neighboring borough of Girardville, said Oliveri was “like anyone else around.” He liked to hunt and fish, and play baseball, too.

At Gal’s Sports Bar in Ashland, Kim Shadle, 33, said she remembers Oliveri as “an average kind of person.” The two went to North Schuylkill High School, which she graduated from in 2000.

“I had to go through my high school yearbook: ‘That name sounds familiar,’” said Shadle, a direct care staff member at a group home. “I don’t really remember much about him.”

Though he hadn’t seen Oliveri in three to four years, Tom Gallagher said he recalled him being quiet and polite.

Gallagher, 57, the owner of Ashland Billiards, which is on the same property as the bar, said Oliveri would come in and shoot pool with his father and another relative.

Said Gallagher: “I just want people to know he wasn’t a mean kid.”

Contributing: The Associated Press