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.
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 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.
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.
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 organizations — 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.
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.
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.
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.”
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.
“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. CNN
Never miss a moment! Get the stories shaping Nigeria, delivered straight to your phone. Follow Peoplesdaily Newspaper on WhatsApp for breaking news, exclusive reports, and the headlines everyone will be talking about, before anyone else.
