{"id":6297,"date":"2026-04-26T09:35:28","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T09:35:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/04\/26\/washington-shooting-what-we-know-so-far\/"},"modified":"2026-04-26T09:35:28","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T09:35:28","slug":"washington-shooting-what-we-know-so-far","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/04\/26\/washington-shooting-what-we-know-so-far\/","title":{"rendered":"Washington shooting: What we know so far"},"content":{"rendered":"<div aria-live=\"polite\" aria-atomic=\"true\">\n<p>Donald Trump has been rushed out of the White House correspondents\u2019 dinner at a hotel in Washington, DC, after a gunman fired shots and tried to breach security.<\/p>\n<p>The US President, First Lady Melania Trump, Vice President JD Vance and cabinet members were unharmed following the shooting at the Washington Hilton hotel.<\/p>\n<section>\n<h2>Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n<p><span>list of 3 items<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span>list 1 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/video\/newsfeed\/2026\/4\/26\/dramatic-scenes-as-trump-rushed-from-white-house-gala\">Dramatic scenes as Trump rushed from White House gala<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 2 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/4\/26\/trump-evacuated-from-the-white-house-correspondents-dinner\">Trump unhurt after shots fired at White House correspondents\u2019 dinner<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 3 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/video\/newsfeed\/2026\/4\/26\/trump-confirms-officer-shot-at-white-house-correspondents-gala\">Trump confirms officer shot at White House Correspondents\u2019 gala<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n<p>A security service agent was hit \u2013 but protected by a bulletproof vest. Trump said he was in \u2018great shape\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>The White House says the suspect, identified as 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen from California, is in custody. Trump said he was heavily armed and appeared to be acting alone.<\/p>\n<p>The White House correspondents\u2019 dinner will be rescheduled in 30 days.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s what to know about the shooting and the suspect.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"what-happened-to-trump\">What happened to Trump?<\/h2>\n<p>The president was hosting the White House Correspondents\u2019 Association \u200cdinner at the Washington Hilton hotel on Saturday night.<\/p>\n<p>The dinner is an annual tradition, where journalists who cover the White House celebrate the First Amendment and raise money for journalism scholarships, together with the president and other US leaders.<\/p>\n<p>But the gala event was interrupted by the sudden sound of gunfire, and Secret Service agents rushed the president out.<\/p>\n<p>A man armed with a shotgun had fired at a Secret Service agent, an FBI official told the Reuters news agency. The agent was hit, but in an area \u2060covered by protective gear and was unharmed, the official said.<\/p>\n<p>Reporting from Washington DC, Al Jazeera\u2019s Chris Sheridan said everyone was eating and socialising, and suddenly, shots were heard.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI thought it sounded like it came from behind where we were sitting, but it was quite loud. It was an echo. Quite a loud boom of at least five shots, which resonated throughout the ballroom just outside where we were,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Al Jazeera\u2019s Alan Fisher noted the very unusual night at the White House.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe don\u2019t often get the president stepping from an assassination attempt, which is what it appears like on the face of it now, into the briefing room to give the media an update, with everyone in their finest clothes,\u201d he reported from Washington DC.<\/p>\n<p>The Hilton hotel is no stranger to assassination attempts and has also been nicknamed the Reagan hotel \u2013 after John Hinckley Jr\u2019s attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan there in 1981. That event is perhaps what the hotel is most famous for, and not the annual White House Correspondents\u2019 Dinner.<\/p>\n<p>Al Jazeera\u2019s Fisher said that Trump seemed quite taken aback by the news.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe himself initially had thought a tray had been dropped, or it was gunfire, and the Secret Service agent spirited him out of the hall along with the first lady and other members of the Cabinet,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>He noted that Trump had made it clear that he wanted to continue the event, but the Secret Service wouldn\u2019t allow it.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"is-trump-safe\">Is Trump safe?<\/h2>\n<p>All US federal officials, including Trump, have been declared safe.<\/p>\n<p>About an hour after Trump was rushed from the event, he posted on Truth Social that a \u201cshooter had been apprehended.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cQuite an evening in DC, Secret Service and Law Enforcement did a fantastic job,\u201d Trump added.<\/p>\n<p>Trump said he had been asked to leave the dinner and said it will be rescheduled.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe First Lady, plus the Vice President, and all Cabinet members, are in perfect condition,\u201d he said. \u201cI have spoken with all the representatives in charge of the event, and we will be rescheduling within 30 days\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Addressing reporters in the US shortly after, Trump lauded the bravery of the Secret Service agent who he said \u201cwas shot from very close distance with a very powerful gun, and the vest did the job\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI just spoke to the officer, and he\u2019s doing great. He\u2019s in great shape. He is in very high spirits, and we told him we love him and respect him,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"who-is-the-suspected-gunman\">Who is the suspected gunman?<\/h2>\n<p>The New York Times and CBS News identified the suspect as 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen.<\/p>\n<p>Reporting from Washington DC, Al Jazeera\u2019s Richard Gaisford said authorities have not released the name of the suspect in custody, but various news reports have identified him.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt appears this was gleaned from the information he gave when he checked into the Washington Hilton before this event. He had a room at the hotel and is being named as Cole Tomas Allen from a place called Torrance in California. He is 31 years old,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe saw that video of him rushing that police line, in effect to try and get into the ballroom, where, of course, Donald Trump was sat close to his wife, Melania, and other members of the cabinet and all of the members of the press who were gathered for the White House Correspondents Dinner there,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>Gaisford noted that in some of the pictures, the gunman is almost half-naked because he\u2019d been stripped by police to ensure he wasn\u2019t carrying any form of explosive device.<\/p>\n<p>Trump described him as a \u201csick\u201d man.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe man has been captured. They go into his apartment. I guess he lives in California, and he\u2019s a sick person. A very sick person. And we don\u2019t want things like this to happen,\u201d the US president told US media.<\/p>\n<p>He added that the events were traumatic for the first lady and that the response from the law enforcement agencies was \u201creally incredible\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re going to reschedule. We\u2019re gonna do it again. We\u2019re not gonna let anybody take over our society. We\u2019re not gonna cancel things out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Todd Blanche, acting attorney general, told US journalists that the investigation \u201cis ongoing\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI expect you will see charges filed shortly. The charges should be self-evident, given the conduct, but as you\u2019ll hear, there will be multiple charges surrounding the shooting, the possession of firearms, and anything else that we can get on this guy,\u201d Blanche said.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"has-trump-been-attacked-in-the-past\">Has Trump been attacked in the past?<\/h2>\n<p>Trump has faced numerous assassination attempts and death threats throughout his years as president and candidate.<\/p>\n<p>The closest call came in July 2024, at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, where a gunman got onto a nearby rooftop with a direct line of sight to then-candidate Trump as he spoke on stage. A bystander was killed, and Trump\u2019s ear was wounded in the attack. Agents shot dead the suspect, 20-year-old Thomas Crooks, at the scene.<\/p>\n<p>A few months later, in September, an armed man hid near Trump\u2019s West Palm Beach golf course in Florida with the intent to kill him, according to officials. Prosecutors said Ryan Routh methodically plotted to kill Trump for weeks, before aiming a rifle through the shrubbery as he played golf. A Secret Service agent spotted Routh before he was able to open fire on Trump, and he was soon arrested nearby. Routh was found guilty last year of attempting to kill the president and was sentenced to life in prison in February.<\/p>\n<p>Also, in February, a 21-year-old man, Austin Tucker Martin, was shot dead after entering Trump\u2019s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida with a shotgun, but the President was not there.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Donald Trump has been rushed out of the White House correspondents\u2019 dinner at a hotel in Washington, DC, after a gunman fired shots and tried to breach security. The US President, First Lady Melania Trump, Vice President JD Vance and cabinet members were unharmed following the shooting at the Washington Hilton hotel. Recommended Stories list &#8230; <a title=\"Washington shooting: What we know so far\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/04\/26\/washington-shooting-what-we-know-so-far\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Washington shooting: What we know so far\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6298,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6297\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}