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Saturday in Washington: Gun Violence Plunges DC Media Gala With Trump Into Chaos (Bloomberg)
The White House Correspondents' Dinner ended like many US events do: With gun violence.
Inside the Washington Hilton ballroom on Saturday, Secret Service agents immediately sprinted down the main aisle and others emerged to hustle the president out of the room, as other dinner guests ducked under tables after shots were fired just outside the ballroom.
At first, many of the dignitaries seemed unaware of the threat outside the ballroom, until security guards started yelling, “Get down!” and “Lie on the ground!”
Trump, along with other people on the main dais, crouched under the table on the stage until he was evacuated. Speaking to reporters later, Trump said, “I heard a noise and sort of thought it was a tray, a tray going down.”
Other agents, clad in body armor and toting long guns, ran in from the edges of the room, climbing over chairs to pull out cabinet officials and other VIPs.
How He Got There: Gunman in DC Gala Attack Built Up Arsenal to Target US Officials (Bloomberg)
The man accused of storming the White House Correspondents’ Dinner spent years quietly acquiring his arsenal, purchasing a shotgun from a Torrance, California, firearms dealer eight months before the attack and a semi-automatic pistol two years earlier, according to a law enforcement intelligence profile reviewed by Bloomberg.
Cole Tomas Allen, 31, bought a Maverick 12-gauge pump-action shotgun from Turner’s Outdoorsman in Torrance in August 2025 and an Armscor semi-automatic pistol from CAP Tactical Firearms in Lawndale in October 2023, the profile shows.
Allen, who earned a mechanical engineering degree from Caltech in 2017 and was pursuing a master’s degree in computer science at California State University-Dominguez Hills as recently as 2025, then traveled cross-country by rail. He took Amtrak from Los Angeles to Chicago and then on to Washington before checking into the Washington Hilton, where he stayed for several days before the attack.
Another Attack at ‘Hinckley Hilton’ Raises New Security Concerns (Bloomberg)
The attempted attack is spurring fresh questions about the security around President Donald Trump and other top officials.
The armed assailant, who investigators believe was staying at the Washington Hilton where the dinner was being held, ran past a security checkpoint before being apprehended after a brief pursuit that included gunfire. Administration officials said Sunday they believe he was targeting US officials, including Trump, who faced a pair of assassination attempts in 2024.
The security for the event was essentially designed as a tight perimeter around the ballroom, with the rest of the hotel largely open to the public, raising questions about how close a potential attacker could get.
The Hilton, in particular, is already infamous in Washington as the site where then-President Ronald Reagan was shot by gunman John Hinckley Jr. outside the hotel doors — the hotel is still referred to colloquially in Washington as the “Hinckley Hilton.” Changes were made after that shooting, including building a secure entry for the president.
Aftermath on 60 Minutes: Trump Lashes Out at CBS News' Norah O'Donnell After Asked About the Shooter's Manifesto Allegations (Axios)
Below: Secret Service officers climb over tables to secure cabinet officials; Law enforcement officers work to secure the hallway outside the ballroom; The scene inside the ballroom as attendees huddle under tables; President Trump and others at the main table after shots rang out.
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