It was supposed to be a glamorous Saturday night at a Washington ballroom where donald trumpbut the atmosphere was cut short by some gunshots that made the guests fall to the floor and the American president was evacuated by security personnel.
Trump was sitting on the platform during the annual dinner of the White House Correspondents’ Association – it was the first time he attended as president – when loud bangs interrupted the celebration and caused him and other people on stage to look up in alarm.
The images captured by AFP At the event they showed a chaotic scene.
Moments after what appeared to be gunshots, shouts of “Don’t get up!” and “Get down!,” as guests, including correspondents, Trump administration officials and some members of his cabinet, scrambled to safety.
In the midst of the chaos, the president was quickly surrounded by personnel from the Secret servicewith weapons drawn, and was quickly carried off the stage and through a back curtain as the crowd cowered in shock.
The music stopped and attendees dressed in evening suits and tuxedos fell silent as agents crowded around tables and over guests on the floor of the sprawling ballroom at the Hilton hotel in Washington, the same one where the president Ronald Reagan He survived an assassination attempt 45 years earlier.
“Shots were heard above”said Mehmet Oz, administrator of Trump’s Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, as he was evacuated by security services.
The Secretary of Health and Human Services was also seen rushing out of the ballroom, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.whose uncle, the president John F. Kennedywas killed by an assassin’s bullet in Dallas, Texas, in 1963.
One America News correspondent Alexandra Ingersoll told the AFP who was inside the room when the commotion began and saw the Secret Service spring into action to protect the president.
“I just crouched under the table and thought, ‘I’m not going to risk it.’“, he said to the AFP. “I didn’t know if they had neutralized the attacker or what was happening.”
Even without many details about what really happened, the evacuation of the entire ballroom was ordered, and several hundred guests made their way to the Hilton lobby and out into the cold air.
Attendees were seen hugging, making calls, texting friends and loved ones, and their news agencies.
The Secret Service later said in a statement that it was investigating a shooting near the event’s main security screening perimeter.
“The president and first lady are safe, along with all those under protection“, the agency said. “One person is detained.”
It was not immediately clear if the assailant fired or if security officers responded to the threat with gunfire of their own.
Around 8:40 p.m. (00:40 GMT), a reporter from the AFP saw police officers running through the streets surrounding the Hiltonerecting barriers, diverting pedestrians to other streets and clearing cars from the area as quickly as possible.
A helicopter was flying over the area. A few minutes later, a motorcade left the Hilton heading toward the White House. (YO)
