In the latest act of political violence in the United States, a gunman opened fire at the Washington Hilton Hotel where the annual White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner was being held April 25.
President Donald Trump, First Lady Melania Trump, Vice President J.D. Vance, and members of the Cabinet were evacuated by security. One security officer, wearing a bulletproof vest, was shot in the chest but was expected to recover. No one else was injured.
Police identified the suspect as Cole Tomas Allen, 31, a video game developer and teacher from the Los Angeles suburb of Torrence, California. Allen opened fire shortly after 8:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time at a security checkpoint area in the hotel, outside the ballroom where the dinner was being held, before Secret Service agents subdued him. The attack is being investigated as politically motivated.
This was the first White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner Trump attended as a sitting president. About 2,500 guests were in attendance when the gunman opened fire. After an attempt to continue the dinner, the guests were later evacuated and Weijia Jiang, president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, announced the dinner would be rescheduled within 30 days.
Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, issued a statement a day after the shooting, April 26. The title of the statement said the archbishop “condemns” the shooting.
“Because human life is a precious gift, there is no room for violence of any kind in our society,” he said.
He also expressed gratitude that the incident did not result in any deaths.
“We are grateful the lives of the president, those who protect him, and everyone in attendance last night were spared from serious harm,” Coakley said. “Let us all pray for our elected leaders and public officials that they may receive God’s blessings.”
