A man armed with a shotgun, a handgun and multiple knives charged a security checkpoint outside the White House Correspondents' Association dinner at the Washington Hilton on Saturday night, exchanged gunfire with law enforcement and was tackled by Secret Service agents as President Trump and senior cabinet officials were rushed from the ballroom. An officer struck in his bullet-resistant vest was released from a hospital hours later. The president was uninjured.

The attack was the third time since 2024 that an armed assailant reached the president's immediate vicinity, and it interrupted the first correspondents' dinner Trump has attended as a sitting president. The United States is in the ninth week of its war with Iran. Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio were among the 2,300 guests in the Hilton's subterranean ballroom.

What happened

Authorities identified the suspect as Cole Thomas Allen, 31, of Torrance, Calif. Jeff Carroll, the interim chief of the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia, said Allen was a guest at the Hilton and used that access to reach the lobby, where he forced his way through a checkpoint as the metal detectors were being disassembled. Security camera footage Trump posted to social media shows Allen sprinting past officers as guards drew their weapons.

Guests were eating a spring pea and burrata salad when the noise began. Trump told reporters at the White House two hours later that he initially thought a tray had dropped; some journalists in the room counted five to eight gunshots. Hundreds of attendees dived under tables. A "God Bless America" chant rose from one corner as Secret Service agents escorted the president from the stage. He tripped briefly and was helped up by his detail.

Allen was not injured in the gunfire exchange, Carroll said. Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser said there was "no reason" to believe anyone else was involved.

The suspect

Allen graduated from the California Institute of Technology in 2017 with a bachelor's in mechanical engineering and earned a master's in computer science from California State University, Dominguez Hills, in May 2025, according to his LinkedIn profile. He worked a year as an engineer, then became an independent video game developer and a part-time teacher at C2 Education, a Torrance test-preparation company that named him "Teacher of the Month" in December 2024. Federal records show he gave $25 to a Democratic political action committee supporting Kamala Harris in 2024.

NBC News spoke with a former high school volleyball teammate from Pacific Lutheran High School in Gardena, Calif., who described Allen as a "borderline genius" and "super stable." The teammate, who asked not to be named, said Allen had been the most gentle person on the team and that the attack was shocking.

Officials said Allen has no criminal record and was not on the radar of Washington law enforcement. CBS News reported Allen told authorities he was targeting officials in the Trump administration. Trump told reporters the shooting would not deter him from prosecuting the war with Iran and said he did not believe the attack was linked to it.

Charges and the investigation

Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, said Allen will face two counts of using a firearm during a crime of violence and a count of assault on a federal officer with a dangerous weapon, with "many more charges" expected. She said Allen is expected to be arraigned Monday in federal court. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said charges will be filed shortly and that "the investigation is obviously ongoing and just started." FBI Director Kash Patel said agents are examining a long gun and shell casings recovered at the scene.

The FBI and Secret Service were preparing to serve a search warrant Saturday night at a home tied to Allen in Torrance, a city of about 140,000 southwest of Los Angeles, Bill Essayli, the first assistant U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, told NBC News.

Security under review

Secret Service Director Sean Curran said the response "shows that our multilayered protection works," and Carroll said the evening's security plan had performed as designed. The Hilton, which has hosted the dinner for years, typically remains open to regular guests during the event, with screening focused on the ballroom rather than the broader hotel. In 1981, John Hinckley Jr. shot President Ronald Reagan outside the same building, prompting a redesign that added a presidential suite near the entrance. Trump was taken there briefly Saturday night.

Richard Gaisford, reporting from Washington for Al Jazeera, said "All eyes will now be on whether there was enough security in place." Republican Rep. Mike Lawler of New York, a guest at the dinner, said he hears "death threats often" and that voters do not fully appreciate how serious the climate of political violence has become.

No Republican or right-leaning outlet surfaced in the body sources for this dossier, and administration officials beyond Trump, Pirro, Blanche, Patel and Curran had not addressed the Hilton's perimeter posture by press time. House Speaker Mike Johnson, who attended with his wife Kelly, said both were "praying for our country tonight." House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said "The violence and chaos in America must end."

Allen's federal arraignment is set for Monday in Washington. The correspondents' association said the dinner will be rescheduled.