Here’s what investigators and security officials said about the layers of protection at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner at the Washington Hilton, after a shooting suspect was detained during the event when President Donald Trump was scheduled to speak.
Officials said the man appeared to reach the event’s outermost security because he was a guest at the hotel, according to interim Metropolitan Police Department Police Chief Jeffery Carroll, who said investigators believed that was how he was able to enter at the time of the event. AP reported that two law enforcement officials identified the suspect as Cole Tomas Allen, 31, of Torrance, California, and said he had a shotgun, a handgun and multiple knives.
Carroll said investigators believed Allen was staying in the hotel and that it appeared to be how he was able to enter the hotel during the event. The AP report also noted that once Trump was seated in the ballroom, additional attendees were not permitted to enter the secured area, which officials said was why security steps were being taken down once the president was inside.
Secret Service Director Sean Curran said the security response demonstrated the effectiveness of the layered approach. Curran’s comments were echoed by Carroll, who said the security plan for the evening was developed by the Secret Service and “that security plan did work this evening.”
Outside, the hotel closed to the public at 2 p.m. Saturday ahead of the dinner, which began at 8 p.m. AP said dozens of protesters gathered in the rain outside the Washington Hilton, mostly targeting media attending the event. Access to the hotel was restricted to hotel guests, dinner ticket holders, people with invitations to receptions held at the hotel before or after the dinner, and documents from the White House Correspondents’ Association showing affiliation with the dinner.
AP reported that the roughly 2,300 guests in the ballroom had to pass several additional checks, including showing tickets to association volunteers and hotel staff, and passing through magnetometers manned by the Secret Service and Transportation Security Administration. Investigators also released security camera footage on social media after the incident that showed the gunman running past officers who appeared to be disassembling metal detectors, the AP report said.
Inside the ballroom, AP said the Secret Service maintained another perimeter around Trump, including a buffer separating him and others seated at the head table from the rest of the attendees. The agency also said it placed armored plates hidden under the table where Trump was seated, and that agents stood at posts in front of the stage and in the wings, alongside heavily armed counter-assault agents.
In addition, AP said security details for dozens of other high-profile attendees were in the ballroom, and that a spokesperson for the hotel directed questions about the venue’s own security measures to the U.S. Secret Service.
AP also put the hotel’s role in presidential security into historical context, citing the Washington Hilton’s association with a prior assassination attempt. The hotel hosted the 1981 shooting of President Ronald Reagan by John Hinckley Jr. on March 30, 1981, when Reagan was returning to his limousine after a speaking engagement and was seriously wounded with a revolver.
After that attack, AP said the hotel built extensive security modifications for presidents, including a secured garage designed to fit a presidential limousine that leads to a dedicated elevator and staircase to a secured suite reserved for personal use. The suite includes a reserved bathroom that the hotel traditionally adorns with monogrammed towels for the president during the limited time it is used each year, AP reported.
The AP report also described how the Secret Service uses the annual dinner as practice for agents because the venue has been extensively studied by the agency for decades, and said that since the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting many hotels have tightened security protocols, including measures such as periodic room checks. It said it was not immediately clear when Allen checked into the hotel or whether any hotel privacy-related measures adopted after 2017 would have affected the case.