According to one witness at the White House Correspondents' Dinner at the Washington Hilton hotel, in Torrance, California, on Saturday, the gunman assembled the ‘long’ weapon he used in a ‘makeshift room’.
The witness, Helen Mabus, was working as a volunteer at the event. She told the New York Post that the gunman, who has now been identified as 31-year-old California teacher Cole Allen, assembled the weapon in the room before moving out toward the event space.
“He was in that room. He grabbed it out of a bag or something,” Mabus said, adding that the weapon “was long” and “didn’t look like a typical gun.”
Mabus said that the suspect had appeared to assemble the weapon in a less monitored area near the terrace level entrance of the venue.
She said that the entrance was where bar carts were being stored and that there was no security at the time.
After assembling the weapon, he moved to the main venue
“He put it together and ran towards the stairs to go down to the ballroom,” she said.
The suspect reportedly shot in multiple directions.
“It just seemed like he was shooting all over the place,” Mabus said. She said she heard “at least 10 shots.”
As soon as gunfire was heard, people screamed and ran while the Secret Service and other armed personnel rushed towards Allen to stop the attack.
Mabus said she ran in the opposite direction.
A veteran CNN anchor, Wolf Blitzer, who was at the event, also said that the man had a “very, very serious weapon.” He was reportedly just a few feet away from the gunman when the gunfire began.