Trump safe after shooting at White House correspondents’ dinner, suspect in custody
Written by: Bo Erickson, Nandita Bose, Jana Winter and Steve Holland
WASHINGTON, April 25 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump were rushed out of a White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in Washington on Saturday night by Secret Service agents after a man opened fire on nearby security personnel.
The man fired a shotgun at a Secret Service agent at a checkpoint at the Washington Hilton hotel before being caught and arrested. Trump later told reporters at a hastily arranged briefing at the White House that the police officer was saved by his bulletproof vest and was “in good shape.”
It is not yet clear whether Trump was the target of the attack, but he told reporters he believed it was. The president had survived two previous assassination attempts since 2024, a period of deepening political polarization in the United States.
TRUMP THINKS THE SUSPECT IS A ‘LONG WOLF’
A law enforcement official identified the suspect as Cole Tomas Allen, approximately 31, of the Los Angeles area. Little was immediately known about Allen’s background, but social media posts suggested he was a teacher in Torrance, California, near Los Angeles.
Interim Washington Police Chief Jeffery Carroll said the suspect was armed with a shotgun, handgun and multiple knives. Carroll said he was taken to a local hospital for evaluation, but it was too early to tell what his motivation was.
Carroll added that based on preliminary information, he is believed to be a guest at the hotel.
The focus of the investigation is likely to be on how the gunman sneaked the shotgun into the hotel hosting the annual White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, a key element of Washington’s social calendar.
The black-tie event was attended by many members of Trump’s cabinet and other senior administration officials amid heavy security. It was Trump’s first time attending the event as president, which he had boycotted in previous years.
Later, Trump addressed reporters, many still in their evening clothes, at an extraordinary late-night news conference in the White House briefing room that included members of his cabinet and Vice President J.D. Vance. He looked off to the side and objected when his wife, Melania, asked him if he wanted to talk about what happened that evening.
The dinner venue was the scene of the assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan, who was shot and wounded by a would-be assassin in front of the hotel in 1981.
Closed-circuit TV footage that Trump posted on Truth Social shows the suspect sprinting through a security checkpoint, momentarily catching security personnel off guard before drawing their guns.
No shots were fired at the gunman, who passed through two checkpoints before being taken down.
“You know, he charged from 50 yards away, so he was a long way from the room. He was moving. He was really moving,” Trump said after the gala dinner was canceled.
Trump said authorities believed he was a “lone wolf.”
HOW IT WAS OPENED
Video footage of the event shows Trump and his wife chatting with someone while sitting at a banquet table on stage, when a commotion caused by gunshots in the back of the ballroom triggered a surge of gasps in the room.
People chanted, “Get down, down!” He started shouting. Many of the 2,600 attendees, dressed in tuxedos and ballgowns, hid under tables as security personnel drew their guns; some pushed cabinet secretaries to the ground and covered them with their bodies, while others formed a protective cordon.
As Trump, his wife, and Vance were being evacuated, security personnel wearing combat fatigues stormed the stage and pointed their rifles at the ballroom. Cabinet members sitting at tables scattered around the large room were ushered out one by one by security guards.
While most of the guests gathered under the tables, some citizens started chanting “USA, USA”.
A source told Reuters that Trump remained backstage for about an hour after being removed from the stage. He later said he did not want to leave the event; this echoed footage of him waving his fist defiantly after narrowly escaping an assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, in 2024.
In this attempt, Trump was shot in the upper ear and injured by a 20-year-old gunman, who was shot and killed by security personnel.
Just two months after Butler was shot, Secret Service agents spotted a man armed with a gun and hiding in bushes at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, while Trump was on the course. The suspect, who was considered an assassination attempt, was sentenced to life imprisonment in February.
(Reporting by Bo Erickson, Nandita Bose, Jana Winter, Steve Holland, Kanishka Singh, Tim Reid, Jonathan Landay, Steve Gorman, Trevor Hunnicutt, Susan Heavey, Jasper Ward, Gram Slattery, Humeyra Pamuk and Andrea Shalal in Washington; Writing by Tim Reid; Editing by William Mallard, Sergio Non and Ross Colvin)
