Wolf Blitzer is recounting his “frightening experience” when shots were fired during the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner Saturday night time.
The longtime NCS anchor spoke to USA Today after the incident, saying he was close to the gunman, who had charged by a safety checkpoint and into the Washington Hilton ballroom with a number of weapons.
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“I feel fine. I’m just scared. It was scary,” he recalled. “I was a few feet away from the gunman as he was firing. It was loud. It was scary. The cops got on top of him and then they got on top of me to protect me. And then they took me away into a secure room, the men’s room. It was just a frightening experience.”
Blitzer additionally went live on NCS after all the pieces went all the way down to element his expertise. He mentioned he was strolling again to the ballroom on the time, after which “heard three, maybe six gunshots” and that it was “enormously loud.”
The journalist added that “when the cop pushed me down, I said to myself, ‘I wonder if I was the target or whatever,’ and thank God I wasn’t ’cause I was not shot. I was just thrown to the ground and protected.”
Following the taking pictures, 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen was later recognized because the suspect and shortly taken into custody. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro confirmed in a press briefing that the suspect can be charged with utilizing a firearm and assaulting a federal officer with a harmful weapon, and that there’ll seemingly be “many more charges” to return.
President Donald Trump and first girl Melania Trump, who had been sitting onstage on the time of the incident, had been additionally rushed out of the ballroom. He later shared particulars surrounding the taking pictures at a press convention on the White House, revealing that an officer was shot however saved by a bulletproof vest.
Trump added that he plans to reschedule the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner.
“We’re gonna do it again, we’re not gonna let anybody take over our society; we’re not gonna cancel things because we can’t do that,” the president added. “We wanted to stay tonight. I will tell you, I fought like hell to stay, but it was protocol.”
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