Mentalist Oz Pearlman was in the middle of a trick for the president when the room changed. He had just revealed the name of the baby White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt is expecting. At about 8:40 p.m. on Saturday, April 25, 2026, a loud noise came from just outside the rear doors of the ballroom at the Washington Hilton, where the White House Correspondents’ Dinner was under way.
Melania Trump’s face shifted to alarm. A Secret Service agent ran onto the stage and planted himself in front of President Donald Trump, scanning the crowd. Guests ducked under tables. More agents followed, some in tactical gear and carrying rifles, and they hustled the president and first lady off the stage, at one point taking both to the ground. An agent grabbed Vice President JD Vance by the jacket and pulled him out. Cabinet members including Marco Rubio, Pete Hegseth, Scott Bessent and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. were led from the hall too.
What happened outside
The ballroom was packed with more than 2,000 journalists, officials and other guests, ABC News reported, and almost none of them knew what was going on. Outside, a man later identified as Cole Allen, 31, of Torrance, California, had run through a security checkpoint and past agents, apparently trying to get into the event. Sources told ABC News his aim was to do “as much damage as he could.”
He never got in. Officials said he traded shots with Secret Service agents and was arrested before reaching the ballroom. A Uniformed Division officer was hit, though his bulletproof vest saved his life. Police Chief Jeff Carroll said the suspect carried a shotgun, a handgun and several knives.
Trump later said he first thought the sound was a falling tray. “Either a tray or a bullet,” he told reporters, adding that his wife recognized it right away as a “bad noise”. He called it “a rather traumatic experience for her”, according to the New York Post.
The official account
At 9:24 p.m., Secret Service spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi said the agency and Washington police were investigating a shooting near the main magnetometer screening area. “The president and the first lady are safe along with all protectees,” he wrote. One person was in custody. Trump posted that law enforcement “did a fantastic job.” Roughly an hour later he stood in the White House briefing room, flanked by Vance, FBI Director Kash Patel and acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, and called the night “very unexpected, but incredibly acted upon.”
Mayor Muriel Bowser said there was no reason to believe anyone else was involved. The ABC timeline shows how the planning went: Allen booked a room at the Hilton on April 2 for April 24 to 26, boarded a train from Los Angeles to Chicago and on to Washington on April 21, and checked in the afternoon of April 24.
Blanche went on ABC’s “This Week” the next morning and argued that “the system worked.” The man, he said, barely got past the perimeter. Allen made his first court appearance on April 27, facing a charge of attempting to assassinate the president, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison. Prosecutor Jocelyn Ballantine told the court he carried a 12-gauge pump-action shotgun, a .38 caliber pistol and three knives.
Sources
- Melania Trump has stunned reaction as gunfire erupts at White House Correspondents' Dinner
- White House correspondents' dinner shooting: Timeline suggests weeks of planning – ABC News
