A California man charged security with multiple weapons at a magnetometer screening area outside the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday night before he shot one Secret Service agent at close range in the vest and then was apprehended.
A long gun and shell casings were recovered at the scene.
President Donald Trump, First Lady Melania Trump, and members of Trump’s cabinet were at the event and were deemed safe and Trump said that he spoke to the agent and he was OK.
“The vest did the job,” Trump said at a press conference on Saturday night.
Trump posted video of the attacker rushing the security area as well as photos of him in custody on social media.
Trump said that he believed the shooter was a “lone wolf” and that he is in a “dangerous profession” but that he wouldn’t allow the assassination attempts to stop him from doing his job.
He went on to say that the Hilton was “not a particularly secure building” and that future dinners would be held in the new White House ballroom.
The event took place in the Washington, D.C. Hilton, less than 2 miles from the White House. The Hilton was also the place where John Hinckley Jr. shot President Ronald Reagan on March 30, 1981.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said that charges would be filed on Saturday night against the attacker. Trump said that the attacker’s California apartment was being investigated.
Trump said that the event would hopefully be rescheduled within 30 days.
