WASHINGTON, DC — Police arrested 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen on Saturday night after he forced his way through a security checkpoint armed with a shotgun, a handgun and multiple knives outside the White House Correspondents' Association dinner at the Washington Hilton in Washington, DC. Security personnel opened fire on the suspect, prompting the evacuation of President Donald Trump and members of his cabinet from the media gala.

The gunfire broke out near the event's indoor security screening area just after 8:30 p.m., as approximately 2,500 guests had assembled in the ballroom. A law enforcement officer was struck by a bullet that hit his bulletproof vest. Secret Service teams swarmed into the venue, and Allen was arrested at the scene.

The hotel had been closed to the public beginning at 2 p.m. Saturday in anticipation of the dinner, which began at 8 p.m. Access was restricted to hotel guests, ticket holders, reception invitees and people with credentials from the association. Guests entering the ballroom passed through magnetometers crewed by the Secret Service and the Transportation Security Administration. Law enforcement officials said Allen lives in Torrance, California, and investigators think he was staying as a guest at the Washington Hilton.

Trump hosted a press conference at the White House shortly after the incident, joined by First Lady Melania Trump, and described the episode as an attack by a "would-be assassin." "A man charged a security checkpoint armed with multiple weapons, and he was taken down by some very brave members of the Secret Service," he said. "They seem to think he was a lone wolf, and I feel that too."

Trump also said, "It's not going to deter me from winning the war in Iran. I don't know if that had anything to do with it, I really don't think so, based on what we know." He vowed to headline a new correspondents' dinner within 30 days and to rework his prepared remarks, praising association president Weijia Jiang for her leadership. Trump said he wanted to continue the event before being urged to leave. "I want to live because I want to make this country great," he said.

Trump released security camera footage on social media showing the suspect running past security officers who appeared to be disassembling metal detectors as guards drew their weapons. Secret Service Director Sean Curran said, "It shows that our multilayered protection works." Jeffery Carroll, interim chief of the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia, said the security plan for the evening had been developed by the Secret Service and that it worked.

Trump has been the target of several assassination attempts. In July 2024, a gunman reached a rooftop overlooking a rally stage in Butler, Pennsylvania, killing a spectator and wounding Trump in the ear before Secret Service agents shot dead the attacker, identified as 20-year-old Thomas Crooks. In September 2024, prosecutors said Ryan Routh aimed a rifle through bushes near Trump's golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida, before a Secret Service agent spotted and arrested him; Routh was convicted of attempting to kill the president and received a life sentence in February. That same month, 21-year-old Austin Tucker Martin was shot dead after entering Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort with a shotgun while Trump was not on the property.