Speaker 1 (00:17):
All right. Everybody [inaudible 00:00:20].
Muriel Bowser (00:27):
Good evening. I'm Muriel Bowser. I'm the Mayor of Washington, D.C. I am joined by members of my public safety team and federal law enforcement, including the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, Jeanine Pirro, the Secret Service Director Sean Curran, as well as FBI field office, Darren Cox. We're here to provide you an update on the incident that took place tonight at 8:36 PM at the Washington Hilton at the site of the White House Correspondent's Dinner. At about that time, a sole gunman rushed a Secret Service checkpoint in a lobby at the hotel. Secret Service agents stopped the suspect. An agent was injured and transported to a local hospital where the agent is receiving care.
(01:27)
The suspect is also transported to a local hospital where he is being evaluated. The President returns safely to the White House as you know. We are so very thankful to members of law enforcement who did their jobs tonight and made sure that all guests were safe. We have no reason to believe at this time that anyone else was involved. I want to turn to the chief of the Metropolitan Police Department, Chief Carroll, to provide law enforcement updated specifics.
Jeff Carroll (02:08):
Thank you, Madam Mayor. Again, I'm Jeff Carroll, Interim Chief of Police for the Metropolitan Police Department. This afternoon, this evening, members of the United States Secret Service and the Metropolitan Police Department were here at the Washington Hotel for a site detail for the correspondence center. As the mayor mentioned, at approximately 8:36 tonight, an individual charged a U.S. Secret Service checkpoint here in the lobby area of the hotel. He was armed with a shotgun, a handgun, and multiple knives. As he ran through that checkpoint, members of law enforcement from the United States Secret Service intercepted that individual. This is a very preliminary investigation at this point. We do know that law enforcement exchanged gunfire with the individual. We do know that a U.S. Secret Service Uniformed Division officer was struck in his vest. He was transported to a local hospital for treatment. He seems to be in good spirits at this time.
(03:02)
The suspect in this case, he was not struck by gunfire. However, he was transported to a local hospital to be evaluated. Again, we're very early in the investigation. We have members of the United States Secret Service, the Metropolitan Police Department, and the FBI here to continue to investigate this matter. But at this point, it does appear he is a lone actor, a lone gunman, there does not appear to be any sort of danger to the public at this time. However, we are continuing to investigate this matter. At this point, I will turn it over to, I believe, the FBI.
Darren Cox (03:38):
Hi, good evening. I'm Darren Cox, the Assistant Director in charge of the FBI's Washington Field Office. The American public should be proud of the quick response and heroic actions from law enforcement officers tonight to keep the American public safe. Their actions are absolutely heroic. The public should also rest assured that there will be no stone unturned during this investigation. The FBI currently has our joint terrorism task force here on scene, along with our criminal division, our crisis response team, and agents from across the country are working on any leads that may come in in this investigation. Anyone with tips in this investigation should call 1-800-Call FBI. Thank you.
Muriel Bowser (04:30):
Director Curran.
Sean Curran (04:31):
Thank you. My name is Sean Curran, I'm the Director of the Secret Service. Tonight, we saw exactly what our brave men and women do each and every day to protect our protectees. It's not easy, and I will tell you that they performed admirably. We got to see what they do, and that individual, when he charged a checkpoint, was apprehended. It shows that our multilayered protection works, and I'm grateful to our partners that help assist us with building these sites and protecting these sites. Very fortunate that this officer is alive, is being observed, and I'm grateful that the president reached out to this officer and spoke with him earlier. I ask everybody to pray for him and all of our officers and agents that were involved. And I will tell you, we will continue with the mission. Thank you.
Muriel Bowser (05:22):
Thank you. Judge Pirro.
Jeanine Pirro (05:29):
I'm Jeanine Pirro. I'm the United States Attorney. Right now, the defendant is being charged with two counts, 924(c) using a firearm during a crime of violence and a second crime under 111, which is assault on a federal officer using a dangerous weapon. Now, as you all know, there was an individual, a uniformed Secret Service officer who was shot. And fortunately, he is doing all right and he will be fine. But it is clear based upon what we know so far, that this individual was intent on doing as much harm and as much damage as he could. And thankfully, because of the checkpoint right outside the ballroom, where thousands of people were situated to hear the President of the United States, because that checkpoint worked, there was no one who was injured when it was clear where this defendant was going.
(06:28)
Now, I want to make one comment. As a participant, someone who was in the ballroom who came this evening to be part of a very lovely event at the White House Correspondent's Dinner, I, for the first time, was in a situation where there were shots fired, shots heard, and the whole room went silent. When I lifted my head and when I looked up, every law enforcement officer was out there as we all had our heads down, thousands of them. These are the men and women every day who do what they do silently, and they do it with courage and with dignity. Thank God for our partners. The FBI, the Secret Service, the Metropolitan Police, all of them tonight acted so quickly that they prevented what could have been a horrific event where we were all sitting there in one room. The defendant will be arraigned on Monday in federal district court, but make no mistake, there will be many more charges based upon the information that we are learning in this very fluid situation. Thank you.
Muriel Bowser (07:47):
I'll take a few questions. [inaudible 00:07:51] Right here in the front.
Speaker 7 (07:51):
Can you confirm that this suspect is specifically targeting the President and is he talking to law enforcement now?
Muriel Bowser (07:57):
Chief?
Jeff Carroll (07:58):
Sure. So at this point, what we know is we know the individual charged a checkpoint with a firearm on his hand. We know he was running in the direction of the ballroom that the President was in, as well as other cabinet members. So what his specific motivation was, we can't say at this point. However, as we continue to investigate that, we'll continue to work towards that.
Speaker 8 (08:17):
[inaudible 00:08:17]. There seems to have been a lack of authorization to come to this event. Was this a failure on the Secret Service?
Jeff Carroll (08:24):
No. I mean, what we have here is a multi-layered approach. The director spoke about it. We have officers on the outside from the Metropolitan Police Department [inaudible 00:08:31] escort. The inside portion of any presidential site is handled by the Secret Service and law enforcement partners. This is a multilayered approach. The point of this checkpoint is to intercept individuals that were there. And what we see in this case is when he reached that checkpoint, Secret Service agents and law enforcement engaged him immediately. They were able to bring him into custody and prevent anyone from being harmed.
Muriel Bowser (08:50):
Right here.
Mark (08:51):
Chief Carroll, can you tell us if you found a vehicle associated with the suspect? And are you or the FBI conducting any search warrants either on a vehicle or locations here or elsewhere around the country?
Jeff Carroll (09:02):
Sure, Mark. So as you can imagine, this is very early in the investigation. So things we're digging into is his background, vehicles. Those are all things that the FBI, the Metropolitan Police Department and the Secret Service are working together joining to determine is there anything else that's available? So I would imagine as we continue to go through this investigation, there will be additional search warrants and things of that nature as the investigation progresses.
Mark (09:21):
Is the suspect under law enforcement?
Jeff Carroll (09:23):
At this point, he was not known to the Metropolitan Police Department. I can tell you that.
Muriel Bowser (09:27):
Right here.
Speaker 10 (09:28):
Chief, there are multiple other parties and events happening associated with this weekend tonight. Is there any reason to believe that there will be security concerns at those events? Are there preparations being made locally to protect those attendees?
Jeff Carroll (09:40):
Yeah, absolutely not. So we have no indication this is an isolated incident with one individual is the information that we do have. However, we do have additional officers across the city that are giving special attention. We do know there were some after parties and events that are planned that we will be providing coverage for those events.
Speaker 11 (09:55):
The president said that this is not a particularly secure building. Do you agree with that assessment?
Jeff Carroll (10:01):
I'm not exactly 100% familiar with this building. I do know in this incident tonight, I know there was a security plan that was developed by the Secret Service that the Metropolitan Police Department assisted with, and I know that security plan did work this evening.
Muriel Bowser (10:13):
Right here.
Speaker 12 (10:13):
Thank you so much. Do you know specifically if President Trump was a targeted attack, and can you speak to the reporting about the suspect assembling a long weapon to get into the ballroom? Can you speak to that at all?
Jeff Carroll (10:30):
Yes. As we said before, we do know the President was inside the ballroom. We know there was cabinet members and many guests in there. Who specifically he was targeting at this point, that's part of the investigation. We do know that he was armed with a shotgun when he ran through that checkpoint. So that would look like a long weapon in video.
Muriel Bowser (10:45):
Right here, right here-
Speaker 13 (10:46):
... Can you clarify, earlier you said there was an exchange of gunfire. Did the suspect fire any shots? And did the uniformed officer, do you know yet which weapon he was shot with?
Jeff Carroll (10:57):
Yeah. Obviously we're only a couple of hours into this incident, so we don't have that level of information. The FBI's evidence response team is here. They're processing the scene. So as the investigation develops, all that information will be figured out with the ballistics. The ATF is also on scene here with us.
Speaker 13 (11:10):
So the suspect did or did not fire a shot?
Jeff Carroll (11:13):
Sure. So again, it's very preliminary information, we do believe he did. However, as the investigation determines, we'll pull the shell casings, we'll be able to get more information as we review more evidence. We're very early in the investigation.
Muriel Bowser (11:23):
All right. We can take a couple more right here and right here and one more over here.
Speaker 14 (11:27):
Thank you so much. So the president said that he wants there to be another event within 30 days. Given what happened tonight, do you have any sense of what additional security members might be put in place to ensure that something similar does not happen again?
Jeff Carroll (11:41):
Sure. I'll toss it to the Secret Service.
Sean Curran (11:44):
Yep. This is what we plan for every day. So we take each and every case and we evaluate it and we do site assessments. And that's why we go out and build these sites per what the event is. And that's how we go about our business.
Speaker 14 (12:00):
Will there be any changes or added measures given that this did happen?
Sean Curran (12:04):
We're going to have to evaluate this evening.
Speaker 14 (12:06):
Thank you.
Speaker 15 (12:06):
Chief is there any indication how the suspect got into the hotel? Was it a guest here? Are you searching rooms here?
Jeff Carroll (12:15):
So preliminary information, we do believe he was a guest here at the hotel. We have secured a room here in the hotel. And again, we'll go through the appropriate procedures to determine what was inside there, but that is secure. At this point, like I said, we believe he is the only suspect in this case.
Speaker 16 (12:30):
To jump on that question, I understand the multi-approach to security, but to walk in with the weapon of that caliber and get all the way to the ballroom, which is on the lower level, seems to be quite an extraordinary feat. How does that happen?
Jeff Carroll (12:43):
Sure. So again, I mean, we're very early in the investigation, so we'll have to determine, we'll go through video across the hotel to figure out how the gun got in, how it got down here. Those things will come through the investigation. At this point, we don't have that level of detail.
Muriel Bowser (12:54):
Okay. Last one.
Speaker 17 (12:56):
Yes. Video appears to show the President falling down when he was being escorted out [inaudible 00:13:03] during his evacuation?
Jeff Carroll (13:04):
No, we don't have any information that he was injured.
Speaker 17 (13:09):
Could you clarify how he was detained? If he was not shot, could you clarify how he was detained?
Jeff Carroll (13:15):
Sure. So law enforcement right here in this very area, they actually tackled him to the ground and handcuffed him.
Mark (13:21):
Can you release his name? Can you give us his name?
Jeff Carroll (13:24):
Not at this time. We will release his name, Mark, once we have all the information. Again, we're still running a lot of things down.
Mark (13:30):
How many people in the hospital?
Jeff Carroll (13:32):
In the hospital. So we have the Uniform Division Secret Service officer who's being evaluated at the hospital who took a round to the vest and the suspect is being evaluated, but he was not struck by gunfire.
Speaker 18 (13:42):
U.S. Attorney Pirro, are you looking at any terrorism charges?
Jeanine Pirro (13:45):
Well, as the chief just indicated, we're very early in this investigation, but make no mistake. If there is anything like that, we will find it and we will file it.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Thank you guys-
Muriel Bowser (13:58):
Thank you. Thank you.