John Deere CEO at White House prior to shooting

The chairman of Quad Cities-based Deere and Company was on his way to the White House Wednesday when a man was shot by Secret Service agents in front of the building. Witnesses say the Indiana man waved a gun and fired some shots near the White House. Ken Golden, a spokesman for Deere, says C-E-O Robert Lane was headed to a meeting with the President and was diverted from the incident.Lane and the leaders of General Electric, Enron, and American International Group, were invited to talk with Bush about the President’s tax cut proposal. The executives were supposed to enter through the White House gate where the fracas occurred. They entered through another gate and didn’t know about the incident until after the meeting. According to the Deere leader, Bush didn’t mention the incident during the meeting.