An assailant attempted Saturday evening to force entry to the annual White House Correspondents' Gala, which was attended by the American president. Donald Trump and other participants were evacuated after the shooting and the suspect was arrested. The investigation, entrusted to the FBI, must determine whether there were failures in the security of the event.

Published on: 04/26/2026 - 09:45 Modified on: 04/26/2026 - 21:20

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US President Donald Trump and other participants in the annual White House Correspondents' Gala in Washington were evacuated on the evening of Saturday April 25 after gunfire.

France 24 takes stock of what we know about the shooting.

· What happened in the ballroom?

Gunshots were heard after the welcome speech at the gala dinner held at the Hilton Hotel in Washington, according to AFP journalists and other witnesses.

Security teams, guns drawn, took up positions on the stage where Donald Trump sat alongside his wife Melania, Vice President J.D. Vance, and other officials, who were quickly evacuated.

Hundreds of formal-dressed guests in the ballroom took shelter under tables, then headed toward the lobby before exiting the hotel as the event was postponed.

Authorities said no VIPs or guests at the gala were injured.

· How did the shooting take place?

Authorities said a "lone gunman" forced a security checkpoint in the hotel lobby, just outside the ballroom where the dinner was taking place, around 8:36 p.m. (0036 GMT).

Donald Trump broadcast images on his Truth Social platform appearing to show the suspect rushing towards the checkpoint before being overwhelmed by the police. “He was armed with a shotgun, a pistol and several knives,” Metropolitan Police Department Acting Chief Jeffery Carroll told reporters.

· Who is the suspect?

Donald Trump shared photos of the suspected shooter, shirtless and handcuffed, face turned to the ground, in what appears to be the Hilton lobby. Authorities have not yet publicly confirmed his identity, but according to American media, he is a 31-year-old man named Cole Tomas Allen, originally from Torrance, California.

An AFP photographer saw FBI agents outside a residence in this city late Saturday evening. The LinkedIn profile of "Cole Allen", whose photo appears to match that of the images released by Donald Trump, presents him as a mechanical engineer, computer scientist, video game developer and teacher.

Donald Trump told Fox News on Sunday that the suspect, who tried to force his way near a metal detector located at the entrance to the room, had left a manifesto.

“When you read his manifesto, he hates Christians, there’s no doubt about it,” he said, speaking of an “obviously very disturbed” person.

According to the New York Post, the suspect had sent his family a few minutes before carrying out this manifesto in which he announced his intention to kill members of the Trump administration, described as "criminals".

· Have there been any security failures?

Questions were raised about reception security and how a weapon could have been brought into the hotel. Attendees reported that a walk-through metal detector had been installed outside the ballroom, but there was no such screening up front or at the hotel entrance itself.

Donald Trump initially declared that it was "not a particularly secure building", but then claimed that the shooter had not entered the ballroom where the event was held, as it was "very, very secure".

The checkpoint the suspect attempted to force was "just outside the ballroom," authorities said. “Because (the agents of) this checkpoint did (their) job, no one was injured,” stressed the federal prosecutor.

"We're going to analyze video throughout the hotel to understand how the weapon got in, how it got there," added Metropolitan Police Department Acting Chief Jeffery Carroll. According to Donald Trump, the security services did “a much better job than in Butler”, where he was the target of an assassination attempt in 2024 during a campaign rally in the state of Pennsylvania.

With AFP

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