UFC CEO Dana White was just a few feet away from President Donald Trump when members of the Secret Service and local police rushed into the ballroom at the Washington Hilton after a shooter opened fire ahead of the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday.
After the president and First Lady Melania Trump were rushed to safety, along with numerous members of his cabinet, the lone gunman was detained but not before the suspect shot a police officer. Trump later revealed in a press conference that the officer was protected by his bulletproof vest, but he was still being treated at a local hospital.
“He was shot from very close distance with a very powerful gun, and the vest did the job,” Trump said. “I just spoke to the officer, and he’s doing great.”
White attended the event as a guest of the president, and he was seated at a table alongside representatives from Paramount Skydance, who are the broadcast partners of the UFC.
While Trump initially hoped to return to the hotel to continue the dinner, he stated that due to protocols the event would have to be cancelled and rescheduled for a later date.
For his part, White said he didn’t exactly know what was happening at that moment, but he saw Secret Service swoop into the room after the shooting started.
“Inside, the whole event just started getting noisy, tables getting flipped over, guys running in with guns and they were screaming ‘get down!’ White told USA Today.
“I didn’t get down. It was f*cking awesome. I literally took every minute of it in. It was a pretty crazy, unique experience.”
White added that he was seated directly in front of the president when the chaos erupted, and he actually thought the shooter might be nearby.
“We were sitting right in front of the table. Right in front of where the president was,” White said. “Nobody got tackled but guys came in looking for shooters and then came towards our table. I thought the shooter was by us or something.”
The shooter later identified as 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen of Torrance, Calif. was allegedly a guest of the hotel where the event took place. Trump added that the suspect was armed with multiple weapons and charged through a security checkpoint before opening fire.
Trump praised the Secret Service and other law enforcement officers who quickly reacted to the shooter and almost certainly saved lives with their actions.
“The response time was really incredible, and we’re going to reschedule,” Trump said. “We’re going to do it again, we’re not going to let anybody take over our society; we’re not going to cancel things because we can’t do that. We wanted to stay tonight. I will tell you, I fought like hell to stay, but it was protocol.”
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