Ahmad Austin Jr.Apr 27th, 2026, 1:32 pm

An eyewitness at Saturday night’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooting told CNN that the shooter was not tackled to the ground as the Trump administration claimed.

Just minutes into the start of the event, attendees heard gunfire outside the ballroom of the Washington Hilton. The shooter, later identified as 31-year-old Cole Thomas Allen, was subdued before entering the ballroom. According to his manifesto, Allen was targeting President Donald Trump and other members of his administration.

In the aftermath of the incident, Trump and his officials commended the officers who acted quickly and took Allen down before he could cause any harm.

According to Erin Thielman, who was near the scuffle as it unfolded, that wasn’t exactly how it happened. On Monday’s edition of The Situation Room with Pamela Brown and Wolf Blitzer, the conversation went as follows:

BROWN: Obviously, you were a key eyewitness as Wolf was. So when you say he fell at your feet, did it seem like he fell, something brought him down, he wasn’t tackled at that moment by law enforcement?

THIELMAN: No, they started running in on him right as I ran down the stairs.

BROWN: OK, so he wasn’t tackled, and that’s what brought him down to the ground?

THIELMAN: No, he was not. He was not.

BLITZER: It looked like he tripped.

THIELMAN: Maybe that’s what happened. I have no idea.

The three added that had Allen not fallen to the ground, he likely would have been able to enter the ballroom.

Watch above via CNN

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!