Trump safe after shooting at White House correspondents dinner, suspect in custody

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump were rushed out of the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner by Secret Service agents on Saturday night after a man opened fire with a shotgun on security personnel, officials said.

The armed man fired at a Secret Service agent, an FBI official told Reuters. About two hours after the incident, Trump told reporters at the White House that the officer was saved by his bulletproof vest and is in “good shape”.

The suspect, whom Trump described as a “sick person,” has been arrested.

All federal officials at the dinner, including Trump, were safe.

TRUMP SAYS SHOOTER ‘LOOKED PRETTY EVIL’

“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 said at a White House press conference after the incident.

Closed-circuit TV footage released by Trump on Truth Social showed someone running rapidly through a security checkpoint, momentarily catching security personnel off-guard before they quickly drew their weapons.

“You know, he charged from 50 yards away, so he was very far away from the room. He was moving. He was really moving,” Trump said after the gala dinner was canceled.

How the shooting unfolded

* Around 8:35 p.m. ET (0035 GMT on Sunday), guests at the Washington Hilton dinner took cover when shots were heard, video footage showed. Soon after, Secret Service agents rushed towards Trump, escorting the president and his cabinet from the ballroom.

* A sole gunman had rushed a Secret Service checkpoint in a lobby, Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser and interim Police Chief Jeffery Carroll later told reporters.

* The suspect charged the Secret Service checkpoint in the hotel’s lobby area and was armed with a shotgun, a handgun and multiple knives, Carroll said. As the suspect ran through that checkpoint, Secret Service members intercepted him.

* A Secret Service agent was injured and transported to a local hospital, the mayor said, adding the suspect was also transferred to a local hospital where he was evaluated.

* “We do know that law enforcement exchanged gunfire with the individual. … The suspect in this case, he was not struck by gunfire,” Carroll said. “Law enforcement … they actually tackled him into the ground and handcuffed him.”

* Around 9:17 p.m. ET (0117 GMT), Trump made his first comments after the shooting, saying law enforcement “acted quickly and bravely.” Trump posted on Truth Social that “the shooter has been apprehended.” Trump said he recommended that the event continue.

* About 20 minutes later, Trump posted again saying law enforcement asked him and others to leave the premises of the venue and that he was complying with that request. The event will be rescheduled “within 30 days,” Trump said.

* Around 10:30 p.m. ET (0230 GMT), Trump addressed the media in a press conference at the White House, accompanied by the director of the FBI and the acting U.S. attorney general. Trump and other law enforcement officials said preliminary information suggested the suspect was a lone shooter.

* Around 11:13 p.m. ET (0313 GMT), Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, told reporters the suspect was being charged with using a firearm during a crime of violence and assault on a federal officer with a dangerous weapon.

Officials believe he is a “lone wolf” who acted alone, Trump said, adding, “He was a guy who looked pretty evil when he was down.”

Trump said federal agents were raiding the California home of the suspected shooter.

Anthony Guglielmi, a Secret Service spokesman, said the service was investigating a shooting near the main screening area at the entrance to the event.

After the sound of shots, dinner attendees immediately stopped talking and people started screaming “Get down, get down!” Many of the 2,600 attendees took cover while waiters fled to the front of the dining hall.

Security agents pushed cabinet officials to the ground, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum.

Other security personnel in combat fatigues stormed the stage and evacuated Trump and his wife. Some security personnel took up position on the stage, pointing their rifles into the ballroom. Cabinet members were evacuated from the venue one by one.

The White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, a marquee fixture of Washington’s social calendar each year, was also attended by many members of Trump’s cabinet and other senior administration officials. The event is held in the basement ballroom of the Hilton hotel.

SHOOTING FOLLOWS 2024 ASSASSINATION ATTEMPTS

Trump and the first lady bent down behind the dais before being hustled out by Secret Service officers. Trump stayed backstage about one hour, a source told Reuters. “We are staying,” he was overheard saying, the source said.

Trump posted on social media that he hoped the dinner, the first he has attended as president, could be rescheduled in 30 days.

He was the subject of two assassination attempts in 2024 while he was campaigning for reelection after leaving the White House in 2021.

The most serious attempt occurred while Trump was campaigning at an outdoor rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July 2024. Trump was shot and wounded in his upper ear by a 20-year-old gunman. The gunman was shot dead by security personnel.

Just over two months after the Butler shooting, Secret Service agents spotted a man wielding a gun and hiding in bushes at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, while Trump was on the course. It was deemed an assassination attempt and the suspect was sentenced to life in prison in February.

The site of Saturday’s dinner, the Washington Hilton, was the scene of an attempt on the life of President Ronald Reagan, who was shot and wounded by a would-be assassin outside the hotel in 1981.