{"id":210516,"date":"2026-04-26T20:26:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T20:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/210516\/"},"modified":"2026-04-26T20:26:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T20:26:08","slug":"news-12-westchester-accused-gunman-at-correspondents-dinner-was-believed-to-be-targeting-top-officials","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/210516\/","title":{"rendered":"News 12 | Westchester | Accused Gunman At Correspondents Dinner Was Believed To Be Targeting Top Officials"},"content":{"rendered":"

The accused gunman<\/a> who tried to storm the ballroom at the White House Correspondents\u2019 Association dinner with guns and knives traveled across the country before the event and is believed to have been targeting members of the Trump administration, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said Sunday.<\/p>\n

Blanche also said officials believe the suspect traveled by train from California to Chicago and then on to Washington, where he checked in as a guest to the hotel where one of Washington\u2019s glitziest events was being held Saturday night.<\/p>\n

Investigators have not publicly named the suspect, but two law enforcement officials familiar with the matter have identified him to The Associated Press as 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen of Torrance, California.<\/p>\n

Law enforcement officials who have examined the gunman\u2019s electronic devices and his writings preliminarily believe he intended to target administration members in attendance at the dinner. He attempted to charge into the cavernous ballroom but was tackled to the ground in a chaotic scene that resulted in shots being fired, President Donald Trump being rushed off the stage and guests ducking for cover beneath their tables.<\/p>\n

The suspect is believed to have purchased the firearms he carried within the last couple of years, Blanche said. He is not being cooperative and is expected to face multiple charges on Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt does appear that he did in fact set out to target folks who work in the administration, likely including the president,\u201d Blanche told NBC\u2019s “Meet the Press.\u201d<\/p>\n

MORE: President Donald Trump’s post on Truth Social<\/a><\/p>\n

Dinner turns to disorder<\/p>\n

Guests were dining on a spring pea and burrata salad when noise began \u2014 noise Trump said he initially thought was a tray dropping but some journalists believed were five to eight gunshots.<\/p>\n

The Secret Service and other authorities swarmed the room as guests ducked under tables by the hundreds. Audible gasps echoed through the ballroom as guests realized something was happening; hundreds of journalists immediately got on phones to call in information.<\/p>\n

\u201cOut of the way, sir!\u201d someone yelled. Others yelled to duck. From one corner, a \u201cGod Bless America\u201d chant began as the president was escorted offstage. He fell briefly \u2014 he apparently tripped \u2014 and was helped up by Secret Service agents. Outside the hotel, members of the National Guard and other authorities flooded the area as helicopters circled overhead.<\/p>\n

After an initial attempt to resume, the event was scrapped for the night and will be rescheduled.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will do this again,\u201d said Weijia Jiang, president of the White House Correspondents\u2019 Association. Shortly afterward, staff began breaking down table settings and the presidential lectern.<\/p>\n

House Speaker Mike Johnson said he and his wife, Kelly, who both attended the event, were \u201cpraying for our country tonight.\u201d The House Democratic leader, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, said \u201cThe violence and chaos in America must end.\u201d<\/p>\n

The banquet hall \u2014 where hundreds of prominent journalists, celebrities and national leaders were awaiting Trump\u2019s remarks \u2014 was immediately evacuated. Members of the National Guard took up position inside the building as people were allowed to leave but not immediately reenter. Security outside was also extremely tight.<\/p>\n

Republican Rep. Mike Lawler of New York, a guest at the dinner, said he heard a pop and \u201cwe didn\u2019t know what the hell it was. And then you heard all sorts of things clatter.\u201d Lawler said he gets \u201cdeath threats often\u201d and said \u201cI think we live in a climate where everybody recognizes its a problem, but I don\u2019t think people fully appreciate how much of a problem it really is.\u201d<\/p>\n

The event had initially appeared set to resume after the disorder. Servers refolded napkins and refilled water glasses in preparation for Trump\u2019s return. Another worker prepared the president\u2019s teleprompter for the remarks he was scheduled to make.<\/p>\n

Generally, the Hilton hotel, where the dinner has taken place for years, remains open to regular guests during the correspondents\u2019 dinner, and security has typically been focused on the ballroom and rather than the hotel at large, with little screening for people not entering the dinner itself. In past years, that has created openings for disruptions in the lobby and other public spaces, including protests in which security moved to remove guests who unfurled banners or staged demonstrations.<\/p>\n

In 1981, President Ronald Reagan was shot by John Hinckley Jr. outside the Hilton \u2014 an event that prompted redesigns of the property that increased security and added a special presidential suite near the entrance where chief executives could be taken. Trump was dispatched there briefly after the incident Saturday night.<\/p>\n

Event would have highlighted Trump\u2019s relationship with press<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s attendance at Saturday\u2019s annual dinner in Washington for his first time as president is putting his administration\u2019s often-contentious relationship with the press on full public display.<\/p>\n

Trump arrived to an event where the leaders of a nation at war mingled with celebrities, journalists and even a puppet \u2014 Triumph the Insult Comic Dog \u2014 in a dinner that typically generates debate about whether the relationship between journalists and their sources should include socializing together and putting aside sometimes adversarial relationships.<\/p>\n

Trump was being watched closely at the event held by the organization of reporters who cover him and his administration. Past presidents who have attended have generally spoken about the importance of free speech and the First Amendment, adding in some light roasts about individual journalists.<\/p>\n

The Republican president did not attend during his first term or the first year of his second. He came as a guest in 2011, sitting in the audience as President Barack Obama, a Democrat, made some jokes about the New York real estate developer. Trump also attended as a private citizen in 2015.<\/p>\n

Trump entered the banquet hall of the Washington Hilton to the strains of \u201cHail to the Chief\u201d and greeted prominent journalists on the dais, also pausing to laud White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt with a cheerful pointing of his finger.<\/p>\n

Past dinners have also featured comedians who poke at presidents. This year, the group opted to hire mentalist Oz Pearlman as the featured entertainment.<\/p>\n

Between berating individual reporters, fighting organizations like The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Associated Press in court and restricting press access to the Pentagon, the administration\u2019s animus toward journalists has been a fixture of Trump\u2019s second term.<\/p>\n

A few dozen protesters stood across the hotel in the runup to the event. One was dressed in a prison uniform, wearing a Hegseth mask and red gloves. Another carried a sign saying, \u201cJournalism is dead.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The accused gunman who tried to storm the ballroom at the White House Correspondents\u2019 Association dinner with guns…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":210517,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,9,24,63,129,131,130],"class_list":["post-210516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-bronx","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210516","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=210516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210516\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/210517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}