• Gunman shoots Secret Service agent before being tackled
• Trump says he was the likely target, calls hotel not a ‘particularly secure’ building
• Suspect to be charged today

WASHINGTON: A “lone gunman” fired shots in the hotel hosting the White House Corres­pondents’ Association dinner on Saturday night, causing President Donald Trump and his cabinet to be rushed out before the suspect was taken into custody.

The man fired a shotgun at a Secret Service agent at a checkpoint in the Washington Hilton hotel before being tackled and arrested. Trump, first lady Melania and Vice President J.D. Vance were rushed out of the dinner after the shots rang out.

Although reports suggested that the president still wished to deliver remarks at the venue, the Secret Service convinced him to return to the White House. The dinner was off, but the president pledged to hold the event again within the next 30 days.

The black-tie event was attended by many members of Trump’s cabinet and other senior administration officials. This was the first time Trump attended the event as president, having boycotted it in previous years.

“It does appear that he did, in fact, set out to target folks that work in the administration, likely including the president,” US Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said on Sunday.

The suspect, Cole Allen, will be charged in federal court on Monday with assault on a federal officer, discharging a firearm and attempting to kill a federal officer, Mr Blanche said.

After the attack, Trump told reporters at a briefing at the White House that the Secret Service agent was saved by his bulletproof vest and was in “good shape”. Secret Service spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi confirmed the officer had been released from the hospital.

President Trump addressed reporters, many still in evening attire, in an extraordinary late-night press conference in the White House briefing room, flanked by Vice President JD Vance and other cabinet members. His wife Melania looked on from the sidelines and demurred when he asked her whether she wanted to talk about the events of the evening.

Trump said he believed that he was the target of the attack. The president has survived two previous attempts on his life since 2024, a period of deepening political polarisation in the United States.

He also mused about the dangers of being president, noting that some of his predecessors had been assassinated, but adding that the suspect had not been close to “breaching” the doors of the ballroom.”

“It’s not particularly a secure building,” President Trump said of the hotel about a 10-minute drive from the White House, which was also the site of a 1981 assassination attempt against then-President Ronald Reagan.

He reportedly said he did not believe that attack was connected to the Iran war.

Closed-circuit TV footage released by Trump on Truth Social showed the suspect running rapidly through a security checkpoint, momentarily catching security personnel off-guard before they drew their weapons. He shot an agent, before being tackled and handcuffed, according to authorities. No shots were fired at the gunman who got through two checkpoints before being brought down.

Security of venue

Meanwhile, Washington interim police chief Jeffery Carroll said the suspect was armed with a shotgun, a handgun and multiple knives. He was taken to a local hospital to be evaluated but it was too soon to say what his motivation was, Mr Carroll said. Based on preliminary information, he was believed to have been a guest at the hotel, the police chief added.

The chaotic events from around 8:35pm (0035 GMT on Sunday) raised fresh questions about the security of top US officials, many of whom were gathered in the hotel’s expansive ballroom.

A focus of the investigation is likely to be how the gunman was able to smuggle the shotgun into the hotel, which hosts the annual White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, a marquee fixture of Washington’s social calendar.

While the roughly 2,600 attendees were required to pass through metal detectors to enter the basement ballroom, they needed only to show a ticket to enter the hotel itself, which was also open to guests. With the venue’s entrance surrounded by demonstrators, many protesting the Trump administration’s war against Iran, attendees were quickly waved through.

How it unfolded

Video footage showed Trump and his wife sitting at a banquet table on stage in conversation with someone when a commotion at the rear of the ballroom – caused by the noise of gunshots – triggered a ripple of gasps through the room.

People started screaming “Get down, get down!” Many of the attendees dressed in tuxedos and ball gowns took cover under tables as security personnel drew their weapons, with some pushing cabinet secretaries to the floor and covering them with their bodies while others formed a protective cordon.

Security personnel in combat fatigues stormed the stage pointing rifles into the ballroom as President Trump, his wife and JD Vance were evacuated. Cabinet members who had been sitting at tables dotted around the vast room were escorted out by their security details one by one.

President Trump stayed backstage for about an hour after being hustled from the stage, a source told Reuters. He later said he had not wanted to leave the event, a remark that echoed images of him defiantly pumping his fist after narrowly escaping an assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, in 2024.

Published in Dawn, April 27th, 2026