Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday condemned the shooting incident at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner, expressing relief that US President Donald Trump, First Lady Melania Trump, and the Vice President were safe.
In a post on X, Modi said he was “relieved to learn” that Trump, the First Lady and the Vice President were safe and unharmed following the security incident at a Washington DC hotel. He extended his best wishes for their continued safety and stressed that violence has no place in a democracy and must be unequivocally condemned.
Trump and Melania Trump were rushed out of the dinner by Secret Service agents on Saturday night after a man opened fire with a shotgun on security personnel, officials said.
An FBI official told Reuters that the armed man fired at a Secret Service agent. Trump later said the officer was saved by a bulletproof vest and was in “good shape.”
Authorities arrested the suspect, whom Trump described as a “sick person.” All federal officials present at the dinner, including Trump, remained safe.
Addressing a press conference at the White House, Trump said, “A man charged a security checkpoint armed with multiple weapons, and he was taken down by some very brave members of the Secret Service.”
Closed-circuit TV footage shared by Trump on Truth Social showed a man running rapidly through a security checkpoint, briefly catching security personnel off guard before they drew their weapons.
“He charged from 50 yards away, so he was very far away from the room. He was moving. He was really moving,” Trump said, adding that officials believe the suspect acted alone.
“He was a guy who looked pretty evil when he was down,” Trump said, noting that federal agents were raiding the suspect’s California home.
Secret Service spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi said the agency was investigating the shooting near the main screening area at the event entrance.
As shots rang out, dinner attendees froze before chaos erupted. People screamed, “Get down, get down!” as many of the 2,600 attendees took cover, while waiters ran toward the front of the dining hall.
Security agents pushed senior officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, to the ground for protection.
Personnel in combat fatigues stormed the stage and evacuated Trump and the First Lady. Some agents took positions on stage, pointing rifles into the ballroom, while cabinet members were escorted out one by one.
The White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, a major fixture of Washington’s social calendar, was held in the basement ballroom of the Hilton hotel and attended by senior administration officials and cabinet members.
Trump and the First Lady bent down behind the dais before agents escorted them out. Trump remained backstage for about an hour, during which he was overheard saying, “We are staying,” according to a source cited by Reuters.
Trump later said he hoped the dinner could be rescheduled within 30 days.
The incident comes after two assassination attempts on Trump in 2024 during his reelection campaign. In July 2024, he was shot and wounded in the upper ear during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, while the gunman was killed by security personnel.
Two months later, agents spotted an armed man hiding in bushes at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida. Authorities treated it as an assassination attempt, and the suspect was sentenced to life in prison in February.
The Washington Hilton, where Saturday’s dinner took place, was also the site of the 1981 assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan, who was shot and wounded outside the hotel.
Source: India Today