Police in the United States have arrested a suspected gunman who stormed the lobby outside the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) dinner, attended by US President Donald Trump, at a hotel in Washington, DC.
The firing prompted the evacuation of Trump, along with the members of his cabinet, from the media gala, being held at the Washington Hilton on Saturday evening. The president later called the incident an attack by a “would-be assassin”.
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Security personnel shot at the suspect after he forced his way through a checkpoint just outside the hotel ballroom, where the president, First Lady Melania Trump, top officials and hundreds of formally dressed guests were assembled.
The man, identified as 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen in US media reports, was arrested at the scene. Official confirmation has yet to be released.
People dived under tables in chaotic scenes as Secret Service teams swarmed into the glitzy WHCA dinner, held annually at the Washington Hilton in the US capital.
“A man charged a security checkpoint armed with multiple weapons, and he was taken down by some very brave members of the Secret Service,” Trump told a news conference at the White House shortly after the incident.
“They seem to think he was a lone wolf, and I feel that too,” he said, after posting video of the suspect sprinting past security as guards drew their weapons.
So, what do we know about the suspect, and where is he now?
Who is the suspected attacker?
Law enforcement officials, who have not released the suspect’s name, say he lives in Torrance, California, a coastal city in the South Bay region near Los Angeles along Santa Monica Bay.
The chief of Washington, DC’s police department said investigators think the suspect was staying as a guest at the Washington Hilton, where the annual dinner was held, though they have not yet established a motive.
Facebook posts appearing to be linked to Allen indicate he was recognised as “Teacher of the Month” in December 2024 by the Torrance branch of C2 Education, a national private tutoring and test-preparation company for college-bound students.
A LinkedIn profile under the suspect’s name describes him as a “mechanical engineer and computer scientist by degree, independent game developer by experience, teacher by birth”.
Allen contributed $25 to a Democratic Party political action committee in support of Kamala Harris for president in 2024, according to federal campaign finance records.
Meanwhile, speaking to reporters, Trump said it was unlikely the shooting was linked to the US-Israel war on Iran.
“It’s not going to deter me from winning the war in Iran. I don’t know if that had anything to do with it, I really don’t think so, based on what we know,” Trump told reporters.
What do we know about the security measures at the hotel?
The interim chief for the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia, Jeffery Carroll, told reporters on Saturday that investigators believe the suspect was staying in the hotel, and that is how he apparently entered it at the time of the event.
The hotel was closed to the public beginning at 2pm (18:00 GMT) on Saturday in anticipation of the dinner, which began at 8pm (00:00 GMT). Outside, dozens of protesters gathered in the rain, mostly directing their criticism at the media attending the event.
Access to the hotel was restricted to hotel guests, people with tickets to the dinner, an invitation to one of the receptions held at the hotel before or after the dinner, or documents from the WHCA indicating affiliation with the dinner.
The 2,300 guests at the event in the hotel’s cavernous subterranean ballroom had to pass through several additional checks to enter the room, including showing tickets to association volunteers and hotel staff and passing through magnetometers crewed by the Secret Service and the Transportation Security Administration.
Security camera footage released by Trump on social media shortly after the incident shows the suspect running past security officers who appear to be disassembling the metal detectors.
Once the president was seated in the ballroom, additional attendees were not permitted to enter the secured area, which is why they were taking them down.
“It shows that our multilayered protection works,” Secret Service Director Sean Curran said. His comments were echoed by Carroll, who said the security plan for the evening was developed by the Secret Service and “that security plan did work this evening”.
However, Richard Gaisford, reporting for Al Jazeera from Washington, DC, said, “All eyes will now be on whether there was enough security in place.”
“This isn’t the first time that someone has tried to kill the president if that was the main aim of this evening’s attack,” he said.
“The man is being held, and we’re told, will be asked these questions. And certainly, we’ll get a clearer picture of the intent and more details of what happened tomorrow.”
What do we know about past attacks on Trump?
Trump has been the target of several assassination attempts and numerous death threats during both his presidency and his campaigns.
The most serious incident occurred in July 2024 at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, when a gunman reached a rooftop overlooking the stage where the then-candidate was speaking. A spectator was killed, Trump was wounded in the ear, and Secret Service agents shot dead the attacker, identified as 20-year-old Thomas Crooks.
A few months later, in September, authorities said an armed man lay in wait near Trump’s golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida, intending to kill him.
Prosecutors said the suspect, Ryan Routh, spent weeks planning the attack and aimed a rifle through bushes as Trump played golf, but a Secret Service agent spotted him before he could shoot, and he was arrested shortly afterwards. Routh was convicted last year of attempting to kill the president and received a life sentence in February.
The same month, 21-year-old Austin Tucker Martin was shot dead after entering Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida with a shotgun; Trump was not on the property at the time.
