How did the suspected shooter get so close to the black tie celebration? A former Secret Service leader tells us what it takes to protect the annual event.
WASHINGTON – The Washington Hilton, site of the annual White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, is one of the most heavily guarded venues visited by the president of the United States and many of the capital’s elite.
Hundreds of Secret Service agents and senior officials, including paramilitary counter-assault teams, travel everywhere with President Donald Trump.
A Secret Service sniper was on the roof of a nearby building, part of a large security force that has been preparing for the annual event for weeks, even months. There is almost certainly a drone flying overhead.
And perhaps as many Washington Metropolitan Police Department officers and employees are working “in partnership” with numerous federal agencies to secure buildings and create impenetrable perimeters in case someone with malicious intent tries to do something.
That’s according to A.T. Smith, a private security consultant who served as deputy director of the Secret Service from 2012 to 2015 and has worked on many such events, including the annual dinner, which is traditionally attended by the president, vice president, Cabinet members, senior White House aides, members of Congress, and hundreds of journalists.
On April 25, the president and first lady Melania Trump rushed out of the dinner after gunshots were heard inside the hotel where the event was being held, causing attendees to collapse to the floor. Poole’s report said several U.S. Secret Service agents shouted “shots fired” during the event.
The suspect was identified as Cole Thomas Allen, 31, of Torrance, California, by The New York Times, CBS, and The Associated Press, citing anonymous law enforcement officials. USA TODAY has not independently confirmed the suspect’s name.
The president and law enforcement officials said one suspect was in custody and facing charges.
What will security look like for the White House Correspondents Dinner?
Smith said the annual dinner is protected by one of the largest security operations outside of so-called special national security events such as presidential inaugurations and political conventions.
“Security in this building has to be at the absolute highest level,” Smith told USA TODAY shortly after the incident. “On a scale of 1 to 10, this should be a 10.”
The Secret Service never says how it will protect the president, including staffing or technology used. Officials did not respond to requests for comment from USA TODAY.
However, Smith said there were likely a total of several hundred operatives on site for the dinner. The dinner took place in the same sprawling complex where a lone gunman attempted to assassinate President Ronald Reagan as he left his hotel on March 30, 1981.
How did someone get close to the ballroom?
So why would someone bring a gun so close?
Federal and local officials will follow protocol and consider the matter over days, weeks and even months, Smith said.
At a White House briefing on April 25, President Trump suggested the suspect was outside the most important layer of the security perimeter. This boundary is the line of magnetometers that all guests must pass outside the ballroom where the dinner party was held.
Previously, anyone wishing to enter the hotel had to present an invitation to either the dinner itself or one of the many pre-parties hosted by media and other groups elsewhere in the building.
“A man stormed into a security checkpoint with multiple weapons and was subdued by very brave members of the Secret Service who acted very quickly,” Trump said.
Asked later in the press conference whether he was concerned about safety at the indoor event, Trump said, “The room was very safe.” “You know, he charged from 50 yards away, so he was pretty far from the room.”
Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said in a post on X that the shooting occurred near the main magnetometer inspection area during the dinner party.
President Trump praised the work of the Secret Service and other law enforcement agencies Saturday night.
“I had to go through a lot” to get to dinner, he said. “We had resources everywhere, we had resources sitting at the table,” he added.
Trump also said the suspect was “moving, really moving. And the reaction time of the officers who apprehended and detained him was excellent.”
President Trump said a police officer was shot “at very close range with a very powerful weapon” but survived because of his security vest.
Other VIPs, including ministers, were also grabbed and pushed to the ground by two or three operatives, pictures emerging from the chaos that followed the attack showed.
Asked if he thought he was a target, Trump said: “I do. I mean, these people are crazy. They’re crazy. And, you know, you never know. They were so far away from me.”
But President Trump noted that the suspect somehow found a way through a less secure layer of the security perimeter before reaching the lower-floor ballroom area where the dinner was held.
“It wasn’t a particularly safe building,” Trump said.
Local and federal authorities said based on preliminary information they believe the suspect in the shooting was a guest at the hotel. According to media outlets including Reuters and ABC News, law enforcement agencies have secured a hotel room believed to belong to the suspect and are conducting an investigation.
The hotel operator told USA TODAY that a man named Cole Thomas Allen was staying at the hotel on April 25th.
Asked about any remedial action he felt was necessary to protect himself, Trump suggested that someone could always find a way to get to him.
“I don’t care how many people you have, I don’t care how good they are. They are your greatest people, and they could be your greatest security in history,” Trump said. But “even if you have a great job and a brain, if it’s a little skewed or a lot skewed, it can cause problems.”
