The witnesses didn't immediately report the shots to police because the sound of gunfire isn't uncommon in the impoverished, crime-ridden Englewood neighborhood, according to court filings.

The Secret Service's Office of Professional Responsibility, which handles that agency's internal affairs, is investigating, and the Homeland Security Department's inspector general also has been notified.

Because Twitter has become the medium through which some consumers get most of their news, it's all the more urgent for judges and journalists to come to an accommodation, Fuller said.

The quake was felt in Dhaka, Bangladesh, where many people in the city's commercial Motijheel district left their offices and homes in panic and ran into the streets. No damage or causalities were reported.