At the Washington Hilton on Saturday, panic ensued after a gunman attempted to enter the ballroom where US President Donald Trump and hundreds of journalists, celebrities and national leaders gathered during the White House Correspondents' Dinner.
The hotel, about 1.5 miles from the White House and used for decades to host the event, has long been considered familiar ground for security agencies. Despite hundreds of people attending the event, there were reportedly many lapses in security.
The entry into the venue appeared less restrictive than expected for a high-security political gathering, The Wall Street Journal reported. Attendees said they were able to pass initial checkpoints by simply showing a ticket or invitation. In several cases, no identification was checked and tickets were not scanned.
"Upon entering nobody asked to visibly INSPECT my ticket nor asked for my photo identification. All one had to do was flash what appeared to be a ticket and they were fine with that," Kari Lake, a former Republican, told WSJ.
Movement inside the hotel was also not heavily restricted in the lower areas. Guests could access the lobby and other floors without screening and only faced magnetometers before entering the main ballroom.
The suspect, 31-year-old Cole Allen, checked into a hotel room a day before the event. Investigators said this allowed him to study the building layout in advance.
Allen, in writings reviewed by investigators, described moving through the hotel without being stopped.
"What the hell is the Secret Service doing? Like, I expected security cameras at every bend, bugged hotel rooms, armed agents every 10 feet, metal detectors out the wazoo. What I got (who knows, maybe they're pranking me!) is nothing," he wrote.
"The security at the event is all outside, focused on protestors and current arrivals, because apparently no one thought about what happens if someone checks in the day before," he added.
While multiple agencies, including the Secret Service, FBI and local police, were involved in protection, the event was assigned "lower security classification" than major national events such as the presidential inauguration or the State of the Union, a person told WSJ.
The report further noted that entry to the hotel was only partially restricted with barriers blocking the driveway. The guests were generally asked to show a room key and ID, and have their names checked against a printed list.
By Sunday, investigators were still reconstructing the gunman's movement. Items recovered from his hotel room included a loaded 10-round magazine, two knives, a laptop, a hard drive, a Metro receipt and a filtered mask.
