Neighbors Say Suspect Was Quiet, Polite

Leland William Modjeski drifted in and out of a community college for a decade before settling in at George Mason University, earning a bachelor’s degree with distinction in 1989 and a master’s over the next three years.

But two years later, Modjeski was delivering for Pizza Hut. Then he was fired. For the last six months, one neighbor said, the man who climbed over the White House fence Tuesday night apparently has been unemployed.

Residents of the one-block street in Falls Church where Modjeski has lived for years with his wife and their blue parakeet say Modjeski was quiet and polite. Although his former professors remembered a bright, motivated student who liked jazz, federal investigators said the 37-year-old son of a military family had a history of mental problems.

His wife, Rosemary Modjeski, told federal agents he was depressed over the recent closing of streets around the presidential mansion.