Washington Hilton Hotel safety slammed as ‘minimal’ over Trump taking pictures chaos

On Apr 26, 2026

Security at the hotel where a gunman ran towards ‘three of the most powerful and important men’ in the US has been criticised for being ‘minimal’ and ‘not good’

13:25, 26 Apr 2026

A gunman branded a “lone wolf whack job” by Trump charged through ‘minimal’ security towards a ballroom where “three of the most powerful and important men” in the United States were dining.

It is believed to be the third attempt on President Trump’s life in just 21 months, prompting criticisms by experts and fellow guests, stunned by the latest security breach.

Cole Tomas Allen, 31, is believed to have checked in as a guest at the Washington Hilton Hotel, allowing him access to the building. Chillingly it is feared he could have been laying in wait for hours, armed with a shotgun, handgun and ‘multiple’ knives, as guests and senators held various events throughout the hotel before the glittering event began.

Secret Service agents were forced to tackle the gunman to the ground after he sprinted through their security checkpoint. He had drawn a gun and shot one officer, who was saved by a bullet proof vest.

Allen from Torrance in California, had approached the metal detector at the entrance of the ballroom where 2,500 were attending the annual White House Correspondents’ dinner. He drew a gun and opened fire as he ran towards the packed ballroom. It is believed he fired around four rounds as guests took cover under tables.

Washington’s Metropolitan Police Department interim chief, Jeffery Carroll, said investigators believe that the suspect was staying in the hotel and that appears to be how he was able to enter at the time of the event.

The hotel was closed to the public from 2pm on Saturday ready for the dinner which began at 8pm. The gunman struck around 8.36pm just as the President was being shown a magic trick by the evening’s entertainer.

As shots rang out the top table looked up and the President said he thought it was a ‘tray going down’ while First Lady Melania told him ‘that’s a bad noise’ and they “were whisked away” by heavily armed Secret Service agents with guns drawn.

Sky News’ journalist Mark Stone, who was at the events and had to duck down as shots erupted, said: “It’s a night I don’t think any of us will forget. It was frightening…I heard three or four more pops and I thought ‘no this definitely is a shooting…there were people shouting ‘shots fired’.

“It was a very cramped room. He said Agents were climbing over chairs trying to get to other senators who were sat around the round tables after being nvited to join by different media outlets.

He said there were many questions to be answered including: “Was it a mass shooting attempt in a ballroom full of journalists, full of celebrities, congress people, other politicians, policy makers, business people, different groups of people who have enemies?”

He described the security as “not good” adding: “One check just outside the ballroom, no check as we went into the hotel. We were just asked to hold our invitations up…

“It’s a huge hotel and to my knowledge it wasn’t shut to hotel guests but it was shut to the general public…you just had to hold your ticket up and you would be allowed in. There were protests outside, pro-Palestine. It was pouring with rain as well so there was an attempt to get people in.

“But if you were already checked in as a hotel guest, you were already inside and that’s kind of chilling actually because it appears that he was, the suspect was checked in as a guest at the hotel which means he was in there the whole time.

“Everyone was there at pre-dinner receptions being hosted by different news organisations in different parts of the hotel before we all went down two floors to the basement to the ballroom area. And it was only there, just outside the ballroom, that the security scanners, airport style and the US Secret Service were checking everyone.

“But it was minimal security, I have to say, for an event where pretty much the whole cabinet were there, as well as the President and the vice President and the speaker of the House. The three most powerful, most important people in the United States, not just in the same building but in the same room.”

Another guest told Sky News, still in his black tie, he thought it was a mass shooting attempt. “I don’t think it was an attempted assassination…I think it was an attempted assassination of Americans. Because if he’d wanted to kill the President, he wouldn’t be coming through the front. I think his plan was to come through the door and start shooting as many people as possible.”

One witness, claimed she saw the shooter assembling a ‘long gun’ in a room where bar carts were being stored near the entrance. Helen Mabus said “there was no security” at the time. He was in that room … he grabbed it out of a bag or something adding that the weapon “was long” and “didn’t look like a typical gun”.

“He put it together and … ran towards the stairs to go down to the ballroom,” she said. “It just seems like he was shooting all over the place,” she said, adding that she had heard “at least ten shots”.

But Trump said in an emergency news conference back at the White House praised the brave officers who ‘subdued’ the gunman and said: “That was very unexpected but incredibly acted upon by Secret Service and law enforcement…

“I don’t care how many people you have, how good they are, you can have the greatest security in history, if you have a whack job who has a brain but it is a little bit distorted, a lot distorted, they can make trouble,” President Trump said at a press conference 30 minutes after the incident.”

But he described the Washington Hilton was “not a particularly secure building” and used it as an example of why he needed to construct a ballroom at the White House. “This is why we have to have all of the attributes of what we’re planning at the White House. It’s actually a larger room, and it’s much more secure.”

Outside of the same hotel 45 years former President Ronald Reagan was shot and left in critical condition by John Hinckley Jr in 1981.

Law enforcement defended the security with Sean Curran, director of the US Secret Service, saying the incident showed that the agency’s security arrangements “works”.

Allen was not known to security services and was named teacher of the month in December 2024. The honour was announced by C2 Education, which specialises in college ‘test preparation, tutoring and academic advising’.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Dylan Wakayama, president of the Asian American Civic Trust, said Allen tutored several high school students who are members of the organisation, a Torrance-based non-profit.

“They thought he was very intelligent, proficient in biology, mathematics and science. They thought he was on the nicer, quiet side. They were completely shocked when I told them that this all went down,” he said. “I think all of us in Torrance would be shocked if this is the man who attempted to kill the president of the United States,” he said.

Jason Moses told how he helped him with his physics homework: “He was just a pretty normal guy. He was a smart guy. He was a little quirky but you would definitely not have expected him to do the things he did tonight. You’d never expect it, coming from this guy.”.

In addition to his part-time work at C2 Education, he’s also self-employed, according to his LinkedIn, identifying as an “indie game developer.”

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Cole Allen, who is registered to vote with no party preference, graduated from CalTech in 2017 with a degree in mechanical engineering. While at CalTech, he was a member of the school’s Christian fellowship and the nerf club, according to his LinkedIn profile.

On his profile he describes himself as a game developer, engineer, scientist and teacher. He registered a trademark in 2019 for “Bohrdom” which is a fighting game he created and released on Steam, an online game platform.