What We Know About the WHCA Dinner Shooting: Live Updates |
President Trump was rushed off stage at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner on Saturday night after a gunman attacked a Secret Service checkpoint near the Washington Hilton ballroom where the event being held. The shooter, a 31-year-old California man, was taken into custody and the event was later cancelled. One Secret Service agent was shot, but saved by their bulletproof best, and there were no other reported injuries. Here’s the latest on this developing story.
What we know about the gunman, Cole Tomas Allen
It’s still not confirmed what motivated the alleged shooter, who appears to have acted alone, and was armed with a shotgun, handgun, and multiple knives, and had apparently booked a room at the Washington Hilton. He was transported to a local hospital for evaluation after he was arrested.
ABC News’s Katherine Faulders reports on the ongoing investigation:
The WHCD shooting suspect is believed to have booked a room in the Hilton in early April, law enforcement officials tell me. He is declining to answer questions but allegedly made some reference to targeting administration officials but was not specific, the officials said.Searches connected to the suspect are currently ongoing in Southern California and DC, law enforcement officials briefed on the investigation tell me. Investigators have retrieved his phone and other devices and are planning to access them as soon as they get search warrants. Preliminary information is that the suspect traveled from LA to Chicago and then on to DC. They are in the process of piecing together all of his movements and contacts over recent days, prior to checking in to the Hilton Saturday.
The WHCD shooting suspect is believed to have booked a room in the Hilton in early April, law enforcement officials tell me. He is declining to answer questions but allegedly made some reference to targeting administration officials but was not specific, the officials said.
Searches connected to the suspect are currently ongoing in Southern California and DC, law enforcement officials briefed on the investigation tell me. Investigators have retrieved his phone and other devices and are planning to access them as soon as they get search warrants. Preliminary information is that the suspect traveled from LA to Chicago and then on to DC. They are in the process of piecing together all of his movements and contacts over recent days, prior to checking in to the Hilton Saturday.
CBS News is also reporting that Allen admitted after his arrest that he wanted to shoot administration officials.
U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro said at Saturday night’s law enforcement press conference that the suspect will be charged with at least two counts, using a firearm during a crime of violence, and assault on a federal officer using a dangerous weapon, and he will be arraigned on Monday.
CNN reports that according to public records, Allen “worked as a teacher and video game developer from Southern California”:
Cole Tomas Allen, 31, who lives in the Los Angeles suburb of Torrance, has been identified by law enforcement as the armed man subdued near the dinner where President Trump and other officials had gathered, two sources familiar with the matter told CNN.A LinkedIn profile matching his name and photo described him as a part-time teacher at C2 Education, a test prep and tutoring company. C2 named Allen the company’s “teacher of the month” in December 2024, according to social media posts from the company. No one answered a phone number for C2 late Saturday evening.According to his LinkedIn profile, Allen graduated from the California Institute of Technology in 2017 with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, and received a master’s degree in computer science from California State University-Dominguez Hills last year.As a student at Caltech, he was featured in a local news report in 2017 for developing a prototype emergency brake for wheelchairs.Allen donated $25 to Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign in October 2024, according to Federal Election Commission records.
Cole Tomas Allen, 31, who lives in the Los Angeles suburb of Torrance, has been identified by law enforcement as the armed man subdued near the dinner where President Trump and other officials had gathered, two sources familiar with the matter told CNN.
A LinkedIn profile matching his name and photo described him as a part-time teacher at C2 Education, a test prep and tutoring company. C2 named Allen the company’s “teacher of the month” in December 2024, according to social media posts from the company. No one answered a phone number for C2 late Saturday evening.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Allen graduated from the California Institute of Technology in 2017 with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, and received a master’s degree in computer science from California State University-Dominguez Hills last year.
As a student at Caltech, he was featured in a local news report in 2017 for developing a prototype emergency brake for wheelchairs.
Allen donated $25 to Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign in October 2024, according to Federal Election Commission records.
Witness says gunman assembled a long gun in a side room
My colleague @GeoffEarle and I interviewed a volunteer staffer who said she saw the gunman who opened fire at the White House Correspondents' Dinner pic.twitter.com/r73bnhQ0te— Josh Christenson (@jchristenson_) April 26, 2026
My colleague @GeoffEarle and I interviewed a volunteer staffer who said she saw the gunman who opened fire at the White House Correspondents' Dinner pic.twitter.com/r73bnhQ0te
The new normal of targeted American political violence
While we don’t know the gunman’s alleged motive yet, we do know that this is the third time Trump’s life has been in danger due to a gunman, and as the New York Times notes, we’re going through a particularly dark ten years in modern American politics:
The president is the highest-profile target of political violence, but the threats for years have affected officeholders at local, state and federal levels. The violence has taken the lives of members of both major political parties.There was the mass shooting in 2017 of Republicans at a congressional baseball practice that nearly killed Representative Steve Scalise, Republican of Louisiana. And there was the assassination last year of the conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Democrats are also often under threat. There were the killings in Minnesota of a Democratic state lawmaker and her husband; the arson attack on the home of Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania; a hammer assault on the husband of former Speaker Nancy Pelosi; the shootings at a Kamala Harris campaign office in Arizona. There was also the Jan. 6, 2021, pro-Trump mob attack on the Capitol that injured roughly 150 police officers.
The president is the highest-profile target of political violence, but the threats for years have affected officeholders at local, state and federal levels. The violence has taken the lives of members of both major political parties.
There was the mass shooting in 2017 of Republicans at a congressional baseball practice that nearly killed Representative Steve Scalise, Republican of Louisiana. And there was the assassination last year of the conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Democrats are also often under threat. There were the killings in Minnesota of a Democratic state lawmaker and her husband; the arson attack on the home of Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania; a hammer assault on the husband of former Speaker Nancy Pelosi; the shootings at a Kamala Harris campaign office in Arizona. There was also the Jan. 6, 2021, pro-Trump mob attack on the Capitol that injured roughly 150 police officers.
Also, Charlie Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, was one of the guests hiding under a table in the ballroom tonight, and reportedly left the event in tears.
White House official Lynn Patton was one of many people at the dinner who had been in Butler, Pennsylvania with Trump when he was nearly assassinated during the 2024 campaign. Per the Washington Post, “Standing in a blue ball gown at the Hilton on Saturday night, Patton appeared visibly shaken. ‘You can only be lucky so many times,’ she said.”
At his White House press conference, Trump was specifically asked if this was just the way it is in America, now, and he responded, “Yeah,” then added that the U.S. was “not the only country you look at. There’s great violence with all countries.”
More footage of White House officials being evacuated
Vance and Trump were taken in separate directions:
Secret Service literally drags VP Vance from the venue after gunfire erupts at White House Correspondents’ Dinner pic.twitter.com/gWvcp5DIX2— Rapid Report (@RapidReport2025) April 26, 2026
Secret Service literally drags VP Vance from the venue after gunfire erupts at White House Correspondents’ Dinner pic.twitter.com/gWvcp5DIX2
And soon after, cabinet members were also located and evacuated:
View from the ground as Trump senior staff and cabinet members evacuated tonight, including Kennedy, Blanche, Stephen and Katie Miller, and Pete Hegseth. pic.twitter.com/p70geTnIF4— Tony Dokoupil (@tonydokoupil) April 26, 2026
View from the ground as Trump senior staff and cabinet members evacuated tonight, including Kennedy, Blanche, Stephen and Katie Miller, and Pete Hegseth. pic.twitter.com/p70geTnIF4
Questions about the event security linger
While it appears the “multilayered” security, as U.S. Secret Service Director Sean Curran described it, worked at preventing the gunman from gaining entry to the ballroom, multiple attendees have called attention to how lax the security seemed otherwise, particularly regarding how all it apparently took to gain entry was a ticket to the event.
It is definitely worth asking serious questions about all of this, when you consider how many top U.S. officials were all in the same room at the same time. A successful attack could have taken out the president, the vice president, and the Speaker of the House (which would have made Senator Chuck Grassley, who was not at the event, the next person in line of succession). And of course there were a great many other VIPs in the room from the media and business worlds, as well.
i actually found an extra ticket on the ground while waiting in line to get into the hotel. I handed it off to security, who were understandably alarmed. anybody could have picked up that ticket and given it to anybody else https://t.co/7wQXEytl1u— Andrew Solender (@AndrewSolender) April 26, 2026
i actually found an extra ticket on the ground while waiting in line to get into the hotel. I handed it off to security, who were understandably alarmed. anybody could have picked up that ticket and given it to anybody else https://t.co/7wQXEytl1u
The Washington Post’s Sarah Blaskey adds:
One attendee, Gavin Quinton, a reporting fellow for the Los Angeles Times, said he had to show a ticket to enter the security perimeter located about a quarter-mile outside of the hotel. It was the first of several times Quinton said he had to flash his ticket at security checkpoints along the route to the ballroom. But, he said, he never had to provide his name or identification.“I felt that there would have been a better verification that I was supposed to be there,” Quinton said.At one security checkpoint, he said guests were also sniffed by dogs. He said the metal detectors were the final security checkpoint before entering the ballroom.
One attendee, Gavin Quinton, a reporting fellow for the Los Angeles Times, said he had to show a ticket to enter the security perimeter located about a quarter-mile outside of the hotel. It was the first of several times Quinton said he had to flash his ticket at security checkpoints along the route to the ballroom. But, he said, he never had to provide his name or identification.
“I felt that there would have been a better verification that I was supposed to be there,” Quinton said.
At one security checkpoint, he said guests were also sniffed by dogs. He said the metal detectors were the final security checkpoint before entering the ballroom.
And what precautions were in effect to protect people outside of the ballroom?
Still no details about the shooter’s motive, but…
The WHCD shooting suspect is believed to have booked a room in the Hilton in early April, law enforcement officials tell me. He is declining to answer questions but allegedly made some reference to targeting administration officials but was not specific, the officials said.— Katherine Faulders (@KFaulders) April 26, 2026
The WHCD shooting suspect is believed to have booked a room in the Hilton in early April, law enforcement officials tell me. He is declining to answer questions but allegedly made some reference to targeting administration officials but was not specific, the officials said.
It was business-as-usual at the Washington Hilton on Saturday night
One of the key things about this hotel is that it is HUGE, and it does not shut down just because there is one........