{"id":210210,"date":"2026-04-26T11:14:25","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T11:14:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/210210\/"},"modified":"2026-04-26T11:14:25","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T11:14:25","slug":"white-house-correspondents-dinner-gunman-assembled-long-weapon-in-unsecured-room-before-firing-volunteer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/210210\/","title":{"rendered":"White House Correspondents\u2019 Dinner gunman \u2018assembled long weapon in unsecured room\u2019 before firing: volunteer"},"content":{"rendered":"

A White House Correspondents\u2019 Dinner volunteer said the suspected gunman<\/a> appeared to assemble a \u201clong\u201d weapon in a lightly monitored area near the terrace-level entrance before opening fire and rushing toward the ballroom<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The witness, Helen Mabus, a volunteer working the event who said she is from Harrisburg, Pa., described a \u201cmakeshift room\u201d near the entrance where bar carts were being stored and where \u201cthere was no security\u201d at the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was in that room [\u2026] he grabbed it out of a bag or something,\u201d Mabus said, adding that the weapon \u201cwas long\u201d and \u201cdidn\u2019t look like a typical gun.\u201d<\/p>\n

REUTERS<\/p>\n

Mabus said the suspect was partially out of view of security as he handled the weapon. Josh Christenson<\/p>\n

Mabus said the suspect was partially out of view of security as he handled the weapon inside the room before suddenly moving toward the main event space.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe put it together and [\u2026] ran towards the stairs to go down to the ballroom,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The gunman then began firing in multiple directions as guests and staff scrambled to escape.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just seem like he was shooting all over the place,\u201d Mabus said, estimating she heard \u201cat least 10 shots.\u201d<\/p>\n

The New York Post front cover for April 26, 2026.<\/p>\n

Members of law enforcement respond during the White House Correspondents Dinner, Saturday, April 25, 2026, in Washington. AP<\/p>\n

Follow the latest on the shooting at the White House Correspondents\u2019 Dinner:<\/p>\n

She said the gunfire triggered immediate panic, with people \u201cscreaming and running\u201d while Secret Service and other armed personnel rushed toward the danger.<\/p>\n

Mabus said she fled in the opposite direction and did not see the suspect apprehended, adding that the chaos unfolded just steps from the path leading down to the ballroom where hundreds of high-profile guests had gathered.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A White House Correspondents\u2019 Dinner volunteer said the suspected gunman appeared to assemble a \u201clong\u201d weapon in a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":210211,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[83162,153,9,11,10,87,3980,58,83124],"class_list":{"0":"post-210210","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-2026-white-house-correspondents-dinner-shooting","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-headlines","12":"tag-new-york-news","13":"tag-politics","14":"tag-shootings","15":"tag-us-news","16":"tag-white-house-correspondents-dinner"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210210\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/210211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}