Suspected drunken driver heading wrong way passes Vice President Kamala Harris’ motorcade on interstate in Milwaukee
By Dalia Faheid and Rashard Rose, CNN
(CNN) — A suspected drunken driver drove toward Vice President Kamala Harris’ motorcade while going the wrong way on an interstate in downtown Milwaukee Monday night.
Just before 8:30 p.m., a 55-year-old Milwaukee man driving an SUV traveled westbound in the eastbound lanes of Interstate 94 at the Marquette Interchange, approaching the motorcade, according to James Burnett, spokesperson for the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office. As it drew closer to the motorcade, deputies stopped the SUV, Burnett said.
Deputies, who suspected the driver was impaired and saw an open container of alcohol in the car, conducted field sobriety tests and took other investigative measures, according to Burnett. They then took the driver into custody on recommended charges of operating while intoxicated and recklessly endangering safety.
The Wisconsin Department of Transportation didn’t immediately respond to a request for video of the incident on Tuesday night. Video obtained by CNN affiliate WISN shows a vehicle moving slowly in a left-hand lane in the opposite direction while a collection of vehicles pass to the right.
No one was injured in the incident. The sheriff’s office deferred any questions about the motorcade to the United States Secret Service.
US Secret Service spokesperson Joe Biesk said the agency “is aware of the incident involving a motorist traveling in the opposite direction on the highway while the Vice President was in her motorcade.”
“We are grateful to the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office for its response which allowed them to stop the motorist and take the driver into custody for DUI,” the statement said.
In the presidential race’s closing days, Harris was campaigning in Waukesha County Monday with former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney. She also made campaign stops in the battleground states of Pennsylvania and Michigan.
CNN has reached out to the Harris campaign for comment.
The incident comes as strain has been placed on the US Secret Service during a busy campaign season and what Acting Director Ronald Rowe has called an “unprecedented and hyper-dynamic threat environment.” Days ago, an independent panel of former law enforcement officials recommended a complete overhaul of Secret Service leadership after reviewing the agency’s security failures that led to the assassination attempt on Donald Trump in Pennsylvania this summer.
Last month, several vehicles in Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz’s motorcade were involved in a crash, and some passengers were taken to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
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