The accused gunman who tried to storm the ballroom at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner with guns and knives travelled across the country before the event and is believed to have been targeting members of the Trump administration, officials have said.
Acting US attorney general Todd Blanche said it is believed the suspect travelled by train from California to Chicago and then on to Washington, where he checked in as a guest to the hotel where the glitzy event was being held on Saturday night.
Investigators have not publicly named the suspect, but two law enforcement officials familiar with the matter have identified him as 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen of Torrance, California.
Law enforcement officials who have examined the gunman’s electronic devices and his writings preliminarily believe he intended to target administration members in attendance at the dinner.
The gunman attempted to charge into the cavernous ballroom but was tackled to the ground in a chaotic scene that resulted in shots being fired, President Donald Trump being rushed off the stage and guests ducking for cover beneath their tables.
The suspect is believed to have purchased the firearms he carried within the last couple of years, Mr Blanche said. He added that the suspect is not being co-operative and is expected to face multiple charges on Monday.
“It does appear that he did in fact set out to target folks who work in the administration, likely including the president,” Mr Blanche told NBC’s Meet The Press.
Speaking at the White House two hours after the incident, Mr Trump said: “When you’re impactful, they go after you. When you’re not impactful, they leave you alone. They seem to think he was a lone wolf.”
The shooting unfolded just outside the vast subterranean ballroom holding thousands of dinner guests, disrupting minutes after it began an annual event meant to honour journalism and the First Amendment that was being especially scrutinised this year because it was the first time since Mr Trump became president that he had attended.
The president told reporters later that he hoped the event would be rescheduled within 30 days, though the fact that an armed man was able to rush towards the ballroom raised instant questions about security precautions at a dinner attended each year by senior US government officials.
Video posted by Mr Trump showed the suspect running past security barricades as Secret Service agents ran towards him. One officer was shot in a bullet-resistant vest but is recovering, officials said.
Inside the ballroom, guests scurried for cover at the sound of shots while Secret Service agents, including the heavily-armed counter-assault team, swarmed the stage after the incident.
Vice-President JD Vance was removed from the room first, while agents initially covered Mr Trump in place before escorting him and First Lady Melania Trump from the room. The president briefly stumbled on the way off-stage, before being assisted by his security detail.
He was held for some time in a secure presidential suite at the hotel as the president and organisers initially sought to resume the event – hotel staff refolded napkins and refilled water glasses, and aides adjusted the teleprompter for the president – before Mr Trump was returned to the White House on the advice of the Secret Service.
It was the third time since 2024 that the president had been under threat by an attacker in his immediate vicinity – including the assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, that injured him and killed a local firefighter.
“Today we need levels of security that probably nobody has ever seen before,” the president said. But he also said: “We’re not going to let anybody take over our society.”
FBI director Kash Patel, flanking Mr Trump, said the agency is examining a long gun and shell casings recovered from the scene, as well as interviewing witnesses from the dinner. He urged anyone with information to come forward.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said he and his wife, Kelly, who both attended the event, were “praying for our country tonight”. The House Democratic leader, Hakeem Jeffries of New York, wrote on social media: “The violence and chaos in America must end.”
Republican Mike Lawler of New York, a guest at the dinner, said he heard a pop and “we didn’t know what the hell it was. And then you heard all sorts of things clatter.”
Mr Lawler said he gets “death threats often” and said: “I think we live in a climate where everybody recognises it’s a problem, but I don’t think people fully appreciate how much of a problem it really is.”