A server at the Washington Hilton described the moment she saw a suspected gunman rush toward security at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner where President Donald Trump and other Cabinet members were present.
Flavienne, a server at the venue, told The Independent how she was pushing a service cart into an elevator with another female employee on Saturday night when a man dressed in a suit to blend in with attendees took out a long gun and opened fire at least three times.
“The lady was behind me, she was working with me. She [was trying to] push the cart [in the elevator]…The guy passed just close to her. Just like you pass like this — and then he pulled out the gun, the long gun. He shot that gun immediately, like three shots.”
A man with short brown curly hair, identified in a picture posted by President Donald Trump on Truth Social, was taken into custody by law enforcement. He was identified as a 31-year-old California man named Cole Tomas Allen by law enforcement sources. A Secret Service agent was shot in the incident, but is expected to be OK. The suspect was apprehended before getting to the ballroom where Trump was on the stage. The suspect has now been detained and charged with two federal crimes.
Journalists and VIPs at Saturday night’s even were looking forward to Donald Trump’s first attendance at the annual celebration of the Washington press corps., and the performance of Oz Pearlman, the evening’s headliner.
Instead, a scene of shock, confusion and panic played out only moments after the national anthem ended and color Guard filed out of the ballroom.
Five loud, unmistakable gunshots rang out from the hallway area immediately connected to the central entrance of the main ballroom. The New York Times reported that a 31-year-old California man named Cole Tomas Allen was taken into custody at the scene.
A security guard who prevented journalists from seeing the hallway where the shooting took place was unable to describe it to reporters who clustered around the exit, eager for details about the scene.
But Flavienne told The Independent that she was mere feet from the attacker as he passed by her and another worker, headed to the main ballroom.
“I pushed my cart, and the lady behind me tried to wait for me to push. I’m trying to help the lady to push the cart, because the cart was big and heavy. So that guy just passed. He just passed like three feet. He pulled up the cart — that’s when he shot,” said Flavienne, who was visibly distraught and in shock from what she’d witnessed. “I’m just feeling like [I need] to get out. Feeling too much emotion like, I’m feeling like this is one I get to saw [like] that on the movie I never, never be [seeing it] happening, right? “
“They said he was dressed up like a server,” another worker at the venue commented as Flavienne recounted her experience.
Images of the detained man depicted him shirtless, though the sequence of the events leading up to the photos weren’t immediately clear.
A state of confusion hung over the dinner for roughly an hour following the shooting. In the very first minutes after the gunshots rang out, VIPs including Trump and Vice President JD Vance, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, FBI Director Kash Patel and Sen. John Fetterman were seen being rushed from the ballroom.
Initially, it appeared that the president and others would be returning in an attempt to make a show of bravery following the chaos. But the White House Correspondents’ Association president, CBS News White House correspondent Weijia Jang, later informed attendees that law enforcement had directed the building be cleared.
As crowds spilled out into the D.C. streets, a light drizzle rained down on some tuxedoed and gowned attendees searching for rideshare vehicles and other means of transportation. An extended security perimeter around the Washington Hilton prevented some from reaching a nearby Metro station, and halted hotel guests seeking to return to their rooms.
The president addressed reporters from the White House briefing room only minutes after the assembled White House press corps was released from the underground ballroom of the Washington Hilton complex.
Trump confirmed to reporters that one law enforcement operative was struck by a round fired by the suspect during the attack, but was “saved by the fact that he was wearing obviously a very good bulletproof vest.”
