Dana White on White House dinner shooting: ‘I didn't get down'
UFC CEO Dana White refused to hit the deck when Secret Service agents swarmed the ballroom at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner after a shooter opened fire outside the event Saturday night.
White was seated at a table directly in front of President Donald Trump when chaos erupted at the Washington Hilton. Armed agents rushed into the room shouting commands while guests overturned tables and scrambled for cover. White stayed upright. “I didn’t get down,” he told USA Today, per MMA Fighting. “It was f*cking awesome. I literally took every minute of it in. It was a pretty crazy, unique experience.”
Secret Service response and suspect detained
The suspect, identified by authorities as 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen of Torrance, California, was a hotel guest who allegedly charged through a security checkpoint armed with multiple weapons. A police officer was shot at close range but survived thanks to his bulletproof vest, Trump said in a press conference after the incident. “He was shot from very close distance with a very powerful gun, and the vest did the job,” the president said. The officer was treated at a local hospital.
White attended the dinner as a guest of the president and sat alongside representatives from Paramount Skydance, the UFC’s broadcast partner. He said he initially thought the shooter might be near his table. “Nobody got tackled but guys came in looking for shooters and then came towards our table,” White said, according to MMA Mania. “I thought the shooter was by us or something.”
Trump praised the response time of law enforcement and said the event would be rescheduled. “We’re not going to let anybody take over our society,” he said. “We’re not going to cancel things because we can’t do that.”
Photo: Press Service of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0
Original reporting:
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