When President Donald Trump and other top officials were evacuated during Saturday’s White House Correspondents’ Association dinner at the Washington Hilton, the incident immediately raised comparisons to the 1981 shooting of President Ronald Reagan outside the same hotel.
Reagan’s attack happened as he left the Washington Hilton and moved toward his waiting limousine on a gray March afternoon, with authorities saying the window of exposure was only seconds. Forty-five years later, officials said another gunman fired at least one shot as he attempted to storm into the ballroom during the dinner—without entering the ballroom and without getting close to Trump.
Video posted by Trump showed what happened after the suspect sprinted through a checkpoint leading to the ballroom. Officers and agents pivoted and pointed guns at the man as he ran away, and officials said he was quickly subdued; the suspect was not injured. Officials also said an officer was shot in a bullet-resistant vest but was not seriously hurt.
Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche said the gunman was likely seeking to target the president and members of the administration. Blanche also said the suspect likely traveled by train from California to Chicago and then on to Washington, where he checked in as a guest at the hotel in recent days, according to the account cited by AP.
AP also reported that law enforcement officials identified the suspect as 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen of Torrance, California. Another law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly, said Cole sent writings to family members minutes before the shooting and referred to himself as a “Friendly Federal Assassin,” while railing about Trump administration policies.
The Hilton’s long history as a presidential venue has shaped how security works there. The Washington Hilton and its cavernous ballroom were designed as a prime location for presidential speeches and other events, with architects creating a VIP entrance on the side of the hotel and, one floor below, a holding room referred to in the AP account as the bunker. In the decade before Reagan was shot, presidents visited the hotel more than a hundred times.
Former Secret Service assistant director Stephen T. Colo said in the AP report that “Security is a lot more robust today than it was then,” but he added that officials still face “the same tension involving politicians and the public’s access to them.” Even with heightened security practices, the hotel’s layout and the need to keep large events functioning can make it difficult to fully shut down access areas in a way that would eliminate all risk.
In Reagan’s 1981 case, the gunman was able to get extremely close before firing. AP reported that outside the hotel that afternoon, the would-be assassin found himself 15 feet from Reagan as the president headed for his limousine. In a small crowd of onlookers and journalists behind a rope line, authorities said the gunman pulled out a gun and fired six shots in 1.7 seconds, wounding Reagan, White House press secretary Jim Brady, District of Columbia Police Officer Thomas Delahanty, and Secret Service agent Tim McCarthy.
Reagan was struck below his left armpit, and the AP account said the bullet lodged an inch from his heart. Reagan survived due to quick thinking by Secret Service agent Jerry Parr and medical personnel at George Washington University Hospital, and the AP report said the gunman was found not guilty by reason of insanity.
After Reagan’s shooting, the Secret Service enhanced security in dozens of ways, according to the AP report, including deploying checkpoints and metal detectors to screen visitors at the White House and at public events. In the decades since, the more visible screening has expanded—but the AP report said Hinckley, in 1981, did not have to pass through a checkpoint or metal detector to get close to the president.
The AP account also described a bunker-like garage for the armored limousine to park and drop off and pick up the president at the VIP entrance, along with more agents and officers guarding presidential events at the Hilton. Still, former agents told AP that securing the Hilton is challenging, in part because of the balance between protecting officials and maintaining public access. They said a key security checkpoint for major events is placed near the ballroom rather than at the hotel lobby or entrance, to reduce disruption to hundreds of guests and hotel operations, while tactical officers and agents position themselves close to the president inside the ballroom.
Note: This story uses information from the public AP wire report cited in the Sources list above.