A woman who witnessed the beginning of Saturday night’s shooting at the White House Correspondents Dinner described a horrifying scene to The Independent as guests, service workers and other hotel guests streamed out of the Washington Hilton into the dark streets of Washington D.C. on a drizzly Saturday evening.
Flavienne, a server at the venue, described how she was pushing a service cart into an elevator with another female employee when a man dressed in a suit to blend in with attendees withdrew a long gun from his person and opened fire at least 3 times.
She described a scene of panic unfolding: “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.
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? Yeah, the same place. And then I saw the guy, oh, my goodness.”
This is a breaking news report. More to follow…
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