WASHINGTON.- At least four explosions were heard from the room at the Washington Hilton hotel where the White House correspondents’ dinner was being held, attended by President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump, as well as several high-level officials.
I was at a table near the entrance to the room and heard the explosions that made me run to a safe place, behind a concrete column, from there I could observe the security movement: Secret Service agents walking on the tables to reach and protect senior officials, dozens of people lying on the floor, some people running, but most of them hiding. In the distance I saw that the main table, where the presidential couple and Vice President JD Vance were, was empty, they were the first people to vacate.
Fear. That’s what I felt. Uncertainty. Courage and sadness, for witnessing an event of this type. As soon as I felt safe I started recording some videos. By then there were already agents from the FBI, the DEA, the local police and other agencies inside and outside the room. The doors were sealed, leaving was prohibited for several minutes, only high-level officials were allowed to evacuate.
I was able to see the departure of the Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, who was with his wife; I also saw FBI Director Kash Patel being escorted away. The Secretary of the Treasury, Scott Bessent, looked visibly affected when he was escorted away, shocked, like surely most of us who were there. Uncertainty contributed to fear.
When I managed to record near the essential table, I documented the case: broken equipment, plates, napkins, glasses and cups on the floor. People scared and uncertain. I managed to look at Undersecretary of State Christopher Landau, who also looked distraught by the events.
Upon returning to my assigned place, my companion – a work colleague who did not authorize me to reveal his name – asked me where I was, and when the events occurred he saw that I reacted quickly to hide. “You disappeared,” he told me. I commented that I have been trained in safety protocols for many years, never wait to know, first find a safe place.
Communication blocked
People tried to use their cell phones to send messages, call, but few managed to do so. I was able to communicate for a few seconds with a family member, to confirm that I was fine, but I could not send images or videos to the editorial office. The WiFi system told me that the signal was saturated, my phone signal never worked, even in the hotel room, from where the editorial team allowed me to obtain a live report.
At one point I saw the influencer Carlos Eduardo Espina, who knows me well and we always greet each other at events where we coincide. “Let’s see what happens,” he said heading towards the exit, but then I saw him recording a video.
There was confusion when they indicated that the event would be resumed. The male voice with the microphone asked people to return to their places, but almost no one paid attention, most of them journalists, we recorded video or took images. Through one of the side doors, where several officials were evicted, I went to the security area of the event, there were agents from various corporations, it was not allowed to use the elevator and it was indicated that if someone wanted to leave, they could not return. Several people decided to stay.
Minutes later, the president of the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA), Weijia Jiang, said that President Trump wanted the event to continue, as he had already expressed on his Social Reality account, but “there are security protocols,” Jiang said, and confirmed that the event would be rescheduled. Without saying date. In his subsequent press conference, President Trump confirmed that he wanted to continue with the event, but that the first lady had experienced a traumatic moment and he had to attend to the security protocols, in addition to pointing out that these might “be greater” after these events.
“Something very serious”
At the event there were journalists from Mexico who were attending for the first time, one of them a former boss who looked at me in amazement at what had happened. There was nothing left but to joke between us because of the fear caused by the attack, nervous.
“This is serious,” Designate, an employee of the event’s video recording system, told me, but he mentioned something connected to what Trump expressed in his press conference.
“We heard that noise and we thought it was a layup or a bullet. I was hoping it was a layup, but it wasn’t. And, once again, we had very brave people who did an excellent job. So we are very proud of them and happy with their performance,” Trump said later in his conference.
The sound could have been different from the point where the president and Designate were, very far from the entrance, where the shots were clear to me.
“My impression was that we heard some noises, we didn’t know what was happening, until we saw the Secret Service agents with the guns and well, we were downstairs,” he said in reference to lying on the floor. “I think everyone…didn’t know what was happening.”
He stated that when he saw the armed agents he thought: “This is serious.”
The shooter is now known to be Cole Tomas Allen, 31, of Torrance, California, who has been charged with two counts so far: carrying weapons and assaulting a law enforcement officer.
