President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump were seated on the stage of the cavernous Washington Hilton ballroom just after 8.30pm Saturday evening, playfully engaging with the evening’s entertainer, mentalist Oz Pearlman.
Just outside, a man sprinted through a security checkpoint with a shotgun in hand, exchanging fire with Secret Service agents who chased behind him, according to security footage released of the incident.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Gunman opens fire at Washington correspondents dinner
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Within seconds, the gunman was subdued by Secret Service — before he could reach the ballroom where the president, Trump administration officials, members of Congress and some of the nation’s most prominent reporters and editors were all in attendance for the annual White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner.
Inside the jammed ballroom, guests had taken their seats and were picking away at burrata and cucumber salads when it became clear the evening had taken a frightening turn. Cracking sounds in quick succession from outside the ballroom doors caused the loud hum of conversation to quickly turn silent.
It wasn’t obvious to those inside the room — situated a level below where the incident occurred — what the sounds were. Even the president himself wasn’t immediately sure what had happened. Trump’s first thought was a tray full of dinner plates crashing to the floor: “I’ve heard that many times,” he would say later from the White House, still wearing his tuxedo from the event.
The Washington incident was the first time the First Lady had been by the President’s side for an apparent attempt on his life. Credit: Mandel Ngan/Getty Images
But as law enforcement agents, many armed, fanned into the room from all the entrances, it became obvious a serious incident had occurred. Shouts of “get down” swept across the ballroom as guests and hotel servers dived underneath chairs and tables to take cover.
The head table was cleared almost immediately. Vice President JD Vance was pulled back from the table and taken off to the left of the stage. As agents with rifles ran to the front of the stage, the president’s Secret Service detail surrounded him, according to video from the side of the stage. As he was being evacuated, the president appeared to briefly fall to the floor before he and the first lady were whisked to a secure room in the hotel. Those sitting alongside him were taken to a separate room down the hall.
‘It scared all of us’
Dinner attendees who had chosen that moment to leave the ballroom before the main course was served, including CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, had unfortunately put themselves in harm’s way. Blitzer had just left a restroom outside the ballroom when he saw the gunman just feet away from him.
“I start hearing gunshots in the hall right near me, and the next thing I knew, a police officer threw me to the ground and was on top of me,” Blitzer said. “The gunshots were so loud, so frightening that it scared all of us. We had no idea what was going on.”
The CNN anchor was taken back into the men’s restroom, where he and more than a dozen others sheltered in place, he said.
He lost a shoe in the commotion.
As the gunman charged the checkpoint, he was armed with a shotgun, a handgun and multiple knives, according to law enforcement officials. A Secret Service agent was shot in the chest during the exchange of gunfire and was OK after being taken to a hospital thanks to the bulletproof vest he was wearing, Trump later told reporters.
Attendees hide under tables after an incident at the annual White House Correspondents Association Dinner. Credit: Nathan Howard/Getty Images
The suspected gunman was identified by law enforcement officials as Cole Tomas Allen, a 31-year-old from a Los Angeles suburb who worked as a teacher and video game developer, according to public records. Officials said that he was a registered guest at the hotel and appeared to have acted alone.
The suspect was not struck by gunfire but was receiving treatment as a local hospital, according to Washington, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser.
Trump later on social media released the security footage of the gunman racing through the security checkpoint, as well as a photo of the suspect subdued by law enforcement on the floor.
President Donald Trump posted a photo of the alleged shooter on Saturday night, identified as Cole Tomas Allen. Credit: Truth Social/Truth Social
Back in the ballroom, silence took hold, punctuated by occasional gasps. Some dinner attendees ducked behind chairs and tables, while many — reporters among them — pulled out their phones to capture the historic moment.
Cabinet members who came as guests of news organisations — meaning they were scattered at tables across the tightly packed ballroom — were hurried from the room by their own security details, who barked into their communication devices as they rushed from the banquet hall. One could be heard declaring “shots fired” into his radio.
Officers combed the room, in some instances mounting chairs to call out the names of officials they were looking to remove before finding them and plucking them from the crowd. The number of high-ranking officials being rushed out illustrated just how many people in the line of presidential succession, along with Trump and Vance, were gathered in one crowded place.
House Speaker Mike Johnson is evacuated. Credit: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
As guests flattened themselves on the floor, one voice called out: “God bless America.”
Justice Department official Harmeet Dhillon said on X that she had a bruise on her head from a Secret Service agent running across her table, thanking the US Marshals for getting her home safely.
Eventually, as officers exited the room, guests began to rise from the floor. Underground and crowded, cell phone service at the event was notoriously bad (the hotel did provide Wi-Fi — partly so attendees could go online to buy more wine for their tables). But many tried placing calls to newsrooms or family members with updates.
The annual event takes place at the Washington Hilton, located a little more than 1.5km northwest of the White House. President Ronald Reagan was shot outside the hotel in an assassination attempt in 1981.
Racing to the White House
As the evening progressed, it wasn’t clear inside the room whether the program would proceed. At one point, an announcer encouraged guests to stand by, even suggesting the steak and lobster course would still be served.
Both Trump and the White House Correspondents Association president, CBS White House correspondent Weijia Jiang, initially wanted to continue with the program. Jiang told those still in the ballroom that the program would be resuming shortly. Trump, meanwhile, was holding in a secure location in the hotel and wanted to return to the venue, according to an administration official.
But Secret Service did not want him to — and the law enforcement view ultimately won out.
“I fought like hell to stay,” Trump said at his press conference. “But it’s protocol.”
Secret Service agents respond near President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump. Credit: Alex Brandon/AP
By the time Trump announced he would be returning to the White House to deliver a press conference — almost exactly an hour after the shooter had charged the security checkpoint — lines had begun forming to exit the hotel. A security perimeter many blocks wide made leaving more difficult.
White House reporters in formal wear scrambled outside to flag down cars, racing the 2.4km back down Connecticut Avenue to the executive mansion.
When Trump emerged in the James S Brady briefing room — named for Reagan’s press secretary who was wounded in that 1981 assassination attempt at the Hilton — he was flanked by Vance and his top law enforcement officials. Trump thanked Jiang for her work and said that the whole ordeal had, strangely enough, caused the room full of political adversaries and the press to become “totally unified.”
“It was very unexpected, but incredibly acted upon by Secret Service and law enforcement,” Trump said.
Off to the side, another individual was listening quietly: the first lady, who like her husband had been whisked into the secure room in the hotel basement.
President Donald Trump answers reporter questions in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House. Credit: Tom Brenner/AP
“That was a rather traumatic experience for her,” Trump acknowledged. “There was a lot of action taking place up there very quickly.”
Melania Trump was not at her husband’s side during two previous assassination attempts, in Butler, Pennsylvania, and in West Palm Beach, Florida. She has long voiced concern for her family’s safety. For her, Saturday’s incident placed the security risks of her position into sharp focus.
“She’s told me numerous times, she said, ‘You are in a dangerous job,’ but that goes along with her too. I mean, it’s dangerous for her too,” Trump said.
Later, when a reporter asked if she might offer her own thoughts on the evening, she demurred.
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