Suspect ‘armed with knives and guns’ charged after shooting at White House correspondents’ dinner - follow live
President and other top leaders evacuated from the annual dinner after shots fired
LIVE Updated 9m agoLauren GambinoSun 26 Apr 2026 00.29 EDTFirst published on Sat 25 Apr 2026 21.09 EDTShareKey events- 1h agoUS attorney for DC: suspect faces preliminary firearms and assault charges
- 1h agoWashington DC mayor says the suspected shooter was taken to a hospital
- 1h agoShooting suspect named as Cole Tomas Allen, according to Associated Press
- 1h agoTrump tells a packed briefing room the shooter was 'fast'
- 2h agoTrump says he first thought the noise was 'a tray going down'
- 2h agoTrump says incident points to need for White House ballroom
- 2h agoOne officer shot but saved by bulletproof vest, Trump says
- 2h agoTrump speaks after interrupted White House Correspondents' Dinner: 'That was very unexpected'
- 2h agoKerry Kennedy says Jamie Raskin 'heroically protected me'
- 3h agoTrump to leave dinner, hold press conference at the White House
- 3h agoTrump to hold press briefing at White House
- 3h agoTrump says suspected shooter has been 'apprehended'
- 3h agoDinner expected to resume after Trump and cabinet members evacuated
- 3h agoOpening summary
0:30“That was very unexpected,” Trump begins, speaking from the White House briefing room. He is still wearing his tuxedo from the evening’s gala.
Key events- 1h agoUS attorney for DC: suspect faces preliminary firearms and assault charges
- 1h agoWashington DC mayor says the suspected shooter was taken to a hospital
- 1h agoShooting suspect named as Cole Tomas Allen, according to Associated Press
- 1h agoTrump tells a packed briefing room the shooter was 'fast'
- 2h agoTrump says he first thought the noise was 'a tray going down'
- 2h agoTrump says incident points to need for White House ballroom
- 2h agoOne officer shot but saved by bulletproof vest, Trump says
- 2h agoTrump speaks after interrupted White House Correspondents' Dinner: 'That was very unexpected'
- 2h agoKerry Kennedy says Jamie Raskin 'heroically protected me'
- 3h agoTrump to leave dinner, hold press conference at the White House
- 3h agoTrump to hold press briefing at White House
- 3h agoTrump says suspected shooter has been 'apprehended'
- 3h agoDinner expected to resume after Trump and cabinet members evacuated
- 3h agoOpening summary
Some news crews have gathered outside the California home of the suspect, identified by multiple news outlets including the Associated Press as Cole Tomas Allen.
According to local reporters, the suspect is a 31-year-old teacher from Torrance, California.
A formal White House “lid” was called at 11:19 EST – a term used by the press office to inform the pool of reporters covering the president that he is not expected to make any further public appearances or remarks that day.
“We have a travel/photo lid at 11:19 on this shocking and unexpectedly newsy day,” pool reporter Jeff Mordock of the Washington Times, wrote in his final note of the evening. “I hope everyone who attended tonight’s WHCA dinner is safe and doing ok.”
House speaker Mike Johnson said on X that he and his wife were at the gala and were “thankful no innocent people were harmed and everyone is now safe”.
“We’re grateful as always for the law enforcement and first responders who acted so quickly to bring the situation under control. Praying for our country tonight,” Johnson said.
Former speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a statement that it was a “great relief” the president, first lady and all attenders were safe “following a terrifying act of violence inside the venue”.
She added: “As someone whose family has suffered political violence, my prayers are with the injured officer and all those affected by the trauma of these horrible incidents.”
Carroll, the DC police chief, said the investigation was “preliminary” but that investigators believed the suspect did fire a shot. While the suspect is being evaluated in the hospital, Carroll said the suspect was not shot.
Carroll said it was too soon to know who the suspect was targeting or what his motive was. But he said investigators believe the suspect was registered as a guest at the Washington Hilton hotel, where the gala took place.
Jeanine Pirro, the US attorney for the District of Columbia, said the defendant has been charged with felony firearms and assault charges.
Pirro was a guest in the ballroom when the man charged through the checkpoint.
“Because that checkpoint worked, there was no who was injured,” she said.
DC Mayor Muriel Bowser is speaking in DC where she gave an update on the incident and ensuing investigation. She said the suspect was transported to a local hospital where he was being “evaluated”.
“We have no reason to believe at this time that anyone else was involved,” she said.
Jeff Carroll, the interim chief of police of the Metropolitan police department, said he appeared to have been a “lone” gunman. He said the suspect “charged a US Secret Service checkpoint” at the Washington Hilton. He said the suspect was armed with a shotgun, a handgun and multiple knives.
There “does not appear to be any sort of danger to the public” at this point,” he said.
The shooting suspect was identified as Cole Tomas Allen, 31, of Torrance, California, the Associated Press is reporting, citing two law enforcement officials.
Trump said FBI agents were searching the suspect’s home in California.
The president has finished taking questions for the evening and promised more details to come.
During his remarks, he said the rescheduled gala would be “better” and “safer”.
“I see so many tuxedos and beautiful dresses,” Trump told the hastily assembled press corps. “It was a little different evening than we thought. But we’re going to do it again.”
The White House press briefing room remains packed to the brim, with Trump, flanked by cabinet officials, vice-president JD Vance, first lady Melania and others.
Trump said Secret Service did a better job today than the assassination attempt in Butler.
“He was fast,” Trump said of the shooter.
He also told reporters “I guess” he was the target at the event and said the attacker was a “wack job”.
He called it “crazy” and said “I want to live because I want to make this country great.”
In the briefing room, Trump was flanked from left to right by Marco Rubio, Pete Hegseth, Karoline Leavitt, Melania, JD Vance, Todd Blanche, Trump in center, then Kash Patel and Markwayne Mullin on the right.
Many of the reporters were also wearing gowns and tuxedos, having come directly from the dinner or a party happening nearby.
Asked if he was concerned about rising political violence in the US, Trump said he had to be.
“It’s a dangerous profession,” Trump said of being an American politician. The job of president was statistically more dangerous than being a race car driver or a bullfighter, he said. “If Marco would have told me, maybe I wouldn’t have run,” he said, referencing his secretary of state, Marco Rubio, who was one his rivals for the 2016 Republican nomination.
In comments after police arrested a suspected shooter at the White House Correspondent’s Dinner, Donald Trump described the Washington Hilton as “not a particularly secure building” and argued the merits of the construction of a ballroom at the White House. “This is why we have to have all of the attributes of what we’re planning at the White House. It’s actually a larger room, and it’s much more secure. … They’ve wanted the ballroom for 150 years for lots of different reasons. But today’s a little bit different, because today we need levels of security that probably nobody’s ever seen before.”
Trump said he had studied assassinations, and said he presumed he was the target of the gunman. “The people who make the biggest impact, those are the ones they go after,” he said.
“It’s always shocking when something like this happens. Happened to me a little bit,” Trump said, obliquely referencing two previous incidents where a gunman either shot at him or had allegedly been planning to do so. “It was very quick. There wasn’t a lot of time to be thinking … I don’t like to let these sick people, these thugs, these horrible, horrible people change the fabric of our lives, change the course of what we do.”
Trump lauded the Secret Service and law enforcement, noting that a Secret Service agent had been shot. “It was, in one way, very beautiful, a very beautiful thing to see a man charge a security checkpoint armed with multiple weapons, and he was taken down by some very brave members of secret service, and they acted very quickly.”
Trump said his speech would have excoriated the press before the shooting, but would be less critical now. “We’re talking about free speech in our constitution. That’s what it’s all about. Not just White House correspondents, it was really based on free speech in our constitution. But I said, very importantly, that we’ll do it again within the next 30 days, it will make it bigger and better, and even nicer.
At the White House press briefing room, Donald Trump said that one police officer was shot following the gunshots going off at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in Washington Saturday night.
He explained that in the moment they were “quite far away”.
Trump said that there will be another dinner “within the next 30 days and we’ll make it better and even nicer”.
Acting attorney general Todd Blanche says that an investigation is under way, and FBI director Kash Patel says they will be interviewing people who were in the room.
“They seem to think he was a lone wolf,” Trump said. He said agents were searching the suspect’s apartment in California.
Asked if he believed he was the target, Trump said: “I guess.”
“When you’re impactful they go after you,” Trump said.
He said earlier: “The room was very, very secure. He charged from 50 yards away so he was very far away from the room.”
The first question goes to Weijia Jiang, the president of the WHCA. Calling on her, Trump vowed the dinner would be postponed.
She noted that Trump had survived an assassination attempt, most notably at an open-air campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
“I thought it was a tray going down … It was a pretty loud noise and it was from quite far away,” Trump said. “He hadn’t reached the area.”
Trump said he was “all set to let it rip” in his remarks about the press.
“I don’t know if I can ever be as rough as I was going to be tonight,” Trump said.
Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general, was also at the dinner and stood beside the president during the briefing.
“You saw the very worst by the actions of that coward that the president just talked about, but you also saw the very best because you saw law enforcement do exactly what they’re supposed to do,” Blanche said.
Kash Patel, the FBI director, is also in the briefing room and vowed accountability.
Trump heaped praise on the law enforcement response and said he would have preferred to return to the ballroom to give his speech.
“I fought like hell to stay,” Trump told the briefing room.
Trump said the incident underscored the need for his mammoth ballroom at the White House. He also made an appeal for peace and even complimented the press’s “responsible” coverage of the event.
Trump says one officer was shot, but was “saved by the fact that he was wearing an obviously very good bulletproof vest.
“He was shot from a very close distance with a very powerful gun, and the vest did the job,” he said.
Trump said he spoke to the officer and he was “doing great” and in “great shape”.
“Has very high spirits and we told him we love him,” Trump said.
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