Author: Beau Erickson and Humela Pamuk
WASHINGTON, April 30 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump and the Secret Service chief said on Thursday that the federal agent injured in an attack at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner was not hit by friendly fire.
U.S. Secret Service Director Sean Curran told Fox News on Thursday that an agent was shot at “point-blank range” by a suspect while running through a security checkpoint near a dinner party on Saturday.
“Our officers heroically returned fire,” Curran said on “The Will Caine Show,” adding that the agent fired five shots.
Curran said the suspect was not hit by the agents’ fire but was injured in the knee and fell to the ground. He said the suspect was restrained by other federal agents near the top of the stairs leading to the ballroom, where Trump, the first lady, senior administration officials and hundreds of others were dining.
A U.S. law enforcement official also told Reuters on Thursday that the investigation concluded that the Secret Service agents were not struck by “friendly fire.”
On Saturday, prosecutors said the armed suspect, Cole Tomas Allen, 31, stormed through a security checkpoint at the Washington Hilton hotel in an attempt to assassinate Trump.
Trump not keen on wearing bulletproof vests
Curran’s comments differ from court documents prosecutors filed Wednesday regarding the sequence of events.
Prosecutors mentioned that an officer fired his weapon five times, but their documents did not mention that the officer was shot.
Wednesday’s filing also does not accuse Allen of targeting or assaulting a Secret Service officer.
Media reports suggested the agent may have been hit by friendly fire.
“They said it wasn’t friendly fire. It wasn’t us,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday.
Curran defended the safety protocols at the Saturday dinner location in an interview.
“The site is set up perfectly. I’ll tell you I’m not going to change the site again,” he said.
Asked if he would wear a bulletproof vest, Trump seemed unenthusiastic.
“I don’t know if I could stand looking 20 pounds heavier,” he said. “I guess it’s something you think about. In a way, you don’t like doing it because you give in to bad elements.”
Against the backdrop of political violence in the United States, the incident has once again raised concerns about the safety of the U.S. president and other senior officials.
(Reporting by Humela Pamuk, Christian Martinez and Beau Erickson; Editing by David Ljungren, Michelle Nichols and Tom Hogg)