White House press dinner shooting suspect due in court
Newshour
BBC
4.2 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 27 April 2026
⏱️ 44 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The suspect detained in connection with the attack at the hotel where President Trump was attending the White House correspondents’ dinner in Washington over the weekend is expected in court. Also on the programme: Ukraine's drone forces commander tells us they are killing 30,000 Russian soldiers a month and will continue to attack Russia's oil exports; and we hear from the man who came second in the London Marathon - but who also broke the iconic sub-two-hour barrier.
(Photo: Law enforcement personnel patrol the venue, following a shooting incident during the annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner, in Washington DC, US, 26 April, 2026. Credit: Ken Cedeno/Reuters)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:09.0 | Hello and welcome to News Hour, live from the BBC World Service in London. |
| 0:13.7 | I'm Rebecca Kesby. |
| 0:15.3 | We head straight to Washington, D.C., where the suspect in the gala dinner shooting attack at the weekend is due in court today. |
| 0:23.4 | Cole Thomas Allen is 31 and was arrested at the scene. |
| 0:27.2 | He's from California and allegedly made his way to Washington via train ahead of the White House correspondence dinner, |
| 0:34.0 | where President Trump was the guest of honour. |
| 0:36.3 | The First Lady, the Vice President and most |
| 0:38.9 | of the senior cabinet members were also there. And as you've probably seen by now, there was a moment of, |
| 0:45.2 | well, panic as security officials burst into the ballroom where the event was taking place and ran to |
| 0:50.8 | protect the President. Yesterday, here on NewsHour, we heard from the man standing next to Mr. Trump |
| 0:56.4 | as it all unfolded. |
| 0:57.9 | That was the entertainer. |
| 0:59.0 | Oz Perlman. |
| 1:00.1 | He's known as a mentalist or magician |
| 1:01.9 | and was thrown to the ground |
| 1:03.3 | next to the president and the first lady. |
| 1:06.0 | I was right in the middle of performing for the president |
| 1:07.8 | and the first lady, |
| 1:09.5 | press secretary, Caroline Levitt. And I heard a commotion |
| 1:13.2 | in the middle of the room. And we heard it, but it was like right at the exact moment of my big |
| 1:17.4 | reveal. So everyone's kind of smiling. But then it escalated. I saw instantly so many people |
... |
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