Attendee describes chaos after shooting at DC correspondents’ dinner

A shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in Washington, D.C., is raising concerns about security at high-profile political events, with attendees already anticipating tighter safety measures moving forward.

Matt Shupe, who attended the dinner and works in public relations for large-scale political gatherings, said the incident has shifted how organizers will approach future events, including those in California.

“It sounded like a pop pop, pop, pop, pop,”

Shupe said the initial confusion inside the venue quickly turned into alarm as guests tried to make sense of the noise.

“You’ve got probably 100 or 200 servers coming in and out with the giant trays with all the entree plates on it. And so at first, everybody kind of thought that maybe 1 or 2 people had collided and all of the plates had fell over.”

He said it soon became clear the sounds were gunfire.

Shupe, who recently worked the California Republican Party convention in San Diego, said incidents like this will likely lead to increased security at similar events.

“I mean, absolutely, there’s going to be a heightened security and more concern for this.”

“You know, I was actually thinking about that this morning that, you know, at the next California Republican Party convention, we probably need to have more security.”

A day after the shooting, Shupe said the mood in Washington remained uneasy, with some attendees and his PR clients opting out of planned events.

“You know, there was actually after parties scheduled for today. And I have clients that are not going to those anymore and people that aren’t going to those. And so it definitely has a different feeling today.”

Despite the incident, Shupe said he hopes to attend the event again in the future.

“I hope my ticket is still good. I do plan on going again.”

The shooting has also renewed scrutiny of the Washington Hilton, the venue where the dinner was held. The hotel is the same location where President Ronald Reagan was shot during his presidency, adding to concerns about security at the site.

A spokesperson for the Washington Hilton said in a statement that “The well-being, safety and security of our guests and team members remains our top priority and we are fully cooperating with law enforcement in their investigation. Additional questions should be directed to the U.S. Secret Service, which led security for the event.”

This story was originally reported for broadcast by NBC San Diego. AI tools helped convert the story to a digital article, and an NBC San Diego journalist edited the article for publication.