Shots fired at the White House Correspondents' Dinner — President Trump evacuated, uninjured

On Saturday evening, April 25, 2026, at approximately 8:34 p.m. EDT, a gunman opened fire near the main security screening area outside the ballroom of the Washington Hilton, where the annual White House Correspondents' Association Dinner was being held. President Donald Trump, First Lady Melania Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and members of the Cabinet were inside the ballroom when the shots were fired. None were injured.

The U.S. Secret Service swiftly evacuated the President and his Cabinet from the room. Reporters and dinner guests were told to take cover, then ushered out of the venue. The dinner was cleared by approximately 9:20 p.m. EDT and effectively cancelled for the evening.

How the suspect got that close

Federal authorities identified the suspect as Cole Tomas Allen, 31, of Torrance, California. Allen was a registered guest at the Washington Hilton on the 10th floor — a room he had pre-booked. Hotel surveillance footage reviewed by senior law enforcement officials showed him leaving his room dressed in black and carrying his weapons in a black bag. He used an interior stairwell to bypass heavily monitored areas of the hotel and exited onto the terrace level — the same level as the foyer leading to the dinner's red carpet.

At approximately 8:34 p.m. EDT, Allen sprinted through the magnetometer screening area, fired at least one round from a shotgun, and reached the top of a staircase that led down to the ballroom where President Trump and Cabinet officials were gathered. Secret Service agents fired at Allen but did not hit him before he was tackled and taken into custody at the checkpoint. He never entered the ballroom.

One Secret Service agent was struck in a bullet-resistant vest during the response and has since been released from the hospital. Allen sustained a knee injury when he was tackled.

New surveillance video and pre-attack steps

In court filings on April 29 and April 30, federal prosecutors released a series of surveillance clips and described in detail what Allen did in the hours and minutes before the attack:

• On Friday, April 24 — the day before the dinner — Allen was captured on hotel security cameras casing a hallway on the Terrace Level of the Washington Hilton, including the corridor leading to the magnetometer checkpoint outside the ballroom.
• On the evening of Saturday, April 25, about half an hour before the shooting, Allen took a selfie inside his 10th-floor hotel room. The image, included in the government's filing, shows him wearing what appears to be the ammunition bag he was later found with, a shoulder holster, and a sheathed knife.