By Nandita Bose, Jana Winter, Steve Holland and Jonathan Landay
WASHINGTON, April 25 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump were rushed out of the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner by Secret Service agents on Saturday night after a man opened fire with a shotgun on security personnel, officials said.
The armed man fired at a Secret Service agent, an FBI official told Reuters. About two hours after the incident, Trump told reporters at the White House that the officer was saved by his bulletproof vest and is in “good shape”.
The suspect, whom Trump described as a “sick person,” has been arrested.
All federal officials at the dinner, including Trump, were safe.
TRUMP SAYS SHOOTER ‘LOOKED PRETTY EVIL’
“A man charged a security checkpoint armed with multiple weapons, and he was taken down by some very brave members of the Secret Service,” Trump said at a White House press conference after the incident.
Closed-circuit TV footage released by Trump on Truth Social showed someone running rapidly through a security checkpoint, momentarily catching security personnel off-guard before they quickly drew their weapons.
“You know, he charged from 50 yards away, so he was very far away from the room. He was moving. He was really moving,” Trump said after the gala dinner was canceled.
Officials believe he is a “lone wolf” who acted alone, Trump said, adding, “He was a guy who looked pretty evil when he was down.”
Trump said federal agents were raiding the California home of the suspected shooter.
Anthony Guglielmi, a Secret Service spokesman, said the service was investigating a shooting near the main screening area at the entrance to the event.
After the sound of shots, dinner attendees immediately stopped talking and people started screaming “Get down, get down!” Many of the 2,600 attendees took cover while waiters fled to the front of the dining hall.
Security agents pushed cabinet officials to the ground, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum.
Other security personnel in combat fatigues stormed the stage and evacuated Trump and his wife. Some security personnel took up position on the stage, pointing their rifles into the ballroom. Cabinet members were evacuated from the venue one by one.
The White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, a marquee fixture of Washington’s social calendar each year, was also attended by many members of Trump’s cabinet and other senior administration officials. The event is held in the basement ballroom of the Hilton hotel.
SHOOTING FOLLOWS 2024 ASSASSINATION ATTEMPTS
Trump and the first lady bent down behind the dais before being hustled out by Secret Service officers. Trump stayed backstage about one hour, a source told Reuters. “We are staying,” he was overheard saying, the source said.
Trump posted on social media that he hoped the dinner, the first he has attended as president, could be rescheduled in 30 days.
He was the subject of two assassination attempts in 2024 while he was campaigning for reelection after leaving the White House in 2021.
The most serious attempt occurred while Trump was campaigning at an outdoor rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July 2024. Trump was shot and wounded in his upper ear by a 20-year-old gunman. The gunman was shot dead by security personnel.
Just over two months after the Butler shooting, Secret Service agents spotted a man wielding a gun and hiding in bushes at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, while Trump was on the course. It was deemed an assassination attempt and the suspect was sentenced to life in prison in February.
The site of Saturday’s dinner, the Washington Hilton, was the scene of an attempt on the life of President Ronald Reagan, who was shot and wounded by a would-be assassin outside the hotel in 1981.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh, Tim Reid, Jana Winter, Nandita Bose, Jonathan Landay and Steve Holland in Washington; Writing by Tim Reid; Editing by William Mallard and Sergio Non)
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