Armed Secret Service agents stand on stage during a shooting incident at the annual White House Correspondents' Dinner at the Washington Hilton. Photo / Getty Images
The United States Secret Service is under pressure to explain how a gunman came within 90m of US President Donald Trump.
The gunman, armed with “multiple weapons”, sprinted past metal detectors toward the ballroom of the Washington Hilton hotel as it hosted the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
He made it to within 55m to 90m of the table where the President, the first lady and senior Cabinet figures were seated before Secret Service agents tackled him to the ground.
The suspect, who did not make it into the ballroom, was later identified as Cole Tomas Allen, a 31-year-old teacher from California.
His motive is not yet known, but CBS News reported that he told police officers he was targeting Trump Administration officials.
There have been calls for an investigation into how he came so close to the President, the third apparent assassination attempt since July 2024.
Attendees said members of the public could access the building without security screening. Allen is believed to have stayed at the hotel and assembled his guns on site.
Republican representative Mike Lawler described the security at the venue as “woefully insufficient”.
The suspect “shouldn’t have been anywhere in that vicinity to begin with. And so from my vantage point, you know, that’s something that needs to be addressed,” he added.
A volunteer, Helen Mabus, who was working at the dinner claimed that she saw the suspected gunman assembling a “long” weapon in a room close to the ballroom, out of view of security.
One police official told CNN that Allen had purchased his two firearms legally in 2023 and 2025, and that he had not been on their radar despite law enforcement having checked all names of guests at the hotel.
Mabus said that the gunman had been situated in a “makeshift” storage room where there had been “no security” at the time, in comments given to the New York Post.
“He was in that room ... he grabbed it out of a bag or something,” she said, adding that the gun was “long” and “didn’t look like a typical gun”.
“He put it together and ... ran towards the stairs to go down to the ballroom,” she said.
The event was already underway at 8.36pm when video showed US agents standing casually near the magnetometer, a device used to screen for concealed weapons, as the suspect raced past them. They quickly pulled their guns, aiming after him.
Mabus said that the gunman then started “shooting all over the place” and she had heard “at least 10 shots” before witnessing people “screaming and running”.
Inside the ballroom, guests had just sat down for their burrata, cucumber and spring pea salad starters when shots were heard and Secret Service agents vaulted over the tables to stop the gunman as the US President and his Cabinet were ushered from the room.
Although the response inside was instantaneous and no one was seriously hurt, questions remain about the wider security arrangements.
Tyler Page, a New York Times reporter, who was at the event, said: “There was a heavy police presence outside the Washington Hilton, but no security screening required to enter the hotel. There were numerous pre-parties hosted on various floors of the hotel, as well as a red carpet.
“However, to enter the ballroom where the dinner was being held, all attendees were required to go through magnetometers and have any bags checked. TSA agents were among those involved in the security checks.”
Representative Ritchie Torres of New York, said: “No security screening was required to enter an event featuring the President of the United States, the Speaker of the House, Cabinet secretaries, and members of Congress?
“This failure of even the most basic security protocols – as inexplicable as it is inexcusable – demands an immediate investigation.”
It was reported that access to the hotel had been limited to ticketed attendees, those with invitations to the receptions on either side of the dinner, and people carrying documentation from the White House Correspondents’ Association.
It had been closed to the wider public from 2pm, six hours before the dinner was set to commence, but guests were still allowed on site.
Jeffrey Carroll, the interim Washington police chief, said that Allen may have been staying at the hotel, allowing him to slip past the outermost layer of security around the event.
Guests also had to pass through several layers of checks to enter the ballroom, including showing their tickets to staff and walking through magnetometers to ensure they were not carrying concealed weapons.
The checkpoint that the suspect tried to charge past was “right outside the ballroom”, authorities said.
“Because that checkpoint worked, there was no one who was injured,” Jeanine Pirro, the US Attorney for Washington DC, said.
Inside the room, the US President sat at a head table separated from other attendees via a security perimeter.
He was surrounded by plain-clothes officers, Secret Service agents who guarded the stage and waited in the wings, and counter-assault agents carrying weapons and donning body armour.
Allen was detained by officers just short of the ballroom. Footage showed the suspected gunman being held face-down on the ground, shirtless and in handcuffs.
A Secret Service officer whom Allen shot was taken to hospital at the scene but released from hospital today, officials said.
Trump told reporters that he had wanted to continue the event, but the Secret Service overruled him.
“It’s not a particularly secure building,” Trump later said of the hotel, using it as an opportunity to tout his plans for a new White House ballroom.
He said later that the gunman had not breached the ballroom where the event was held, and that it was “very, very secure”.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump said the attempted attack would never have happened “with the militarily top secret ballroom currently under construction at the White House”.
He said his US$400 million ($682m) ballroom plan would be equipped with bulletproof glass and “drone-proof” measures, in remarks to journalists shortly after the attack.
For months, Trump has made the case in federal court that his ballroom should be constructed because of its enhanced security features.
A US judge halted the project at the end of March.
The US President has had two previous attempts on his life.
Firstly, a gunman in Butler, Pennsylvania, managed to graze Trump’s ear, shooting from a rooftop at an outdoor campaign rally. Trump made a split-second, accidental head movement away from the bullet intended for his skull.
Just two months later, Trump was targeted by another gunman who skulked in the shrubbery around the Trump International Golf Club in Florida for 12 hours before finding an opportunity to aim an SKS rifle at his target from about 365m.
According to Trump, the security services did a “much better job than Butler” yesterday.
The Washington Hilton, which is about 1.5km from the White House, is where President Ronald Reagan was shot and injured in 1981.
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