A journalist has raised an alarm over “staggering” security failures at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner (WHCD). He claimed he unknowingly spent the night in a hotel room next to the alleged shooter at the Washington Hilton.
The account was published by Hugh Dougherty of The Daily Beast with details of how he returned to his room after the shooting, only to find law enforcement blocking access to the room adjacent to room 10235.
Read more: Cole Tomas Allen manifesto: Full text and quotes from White House correspondents’ dinner shooting suspect
“Quite simply, a man who wanted to kill people…had checked into the Washington Hilton”
Dougherty started his account after the shooter was neutralized after he finally clicked many pictures and wanted to retire to his room.
“When I walked down the darkened, sinuous corridor to room 10235, one door short of the very end, I was stopped by a polite man in a suit and an earpiece. ‘Sorry, sir, you can’t come through,’” Dougherty wrote.
There were five law enforcement officers stationed in the corridor outside his room. He was asked to return after 20 minutes; however, even that did not prove to be enough.
“When do you think I can get back in?” I asked. “I don’t know, sir,” a man in a Metropolitan Police uniform next to the Hilton worker said. “We’re waiting on a judge,” Dougherty accounted.
He added, “The police needed a judge because they needed to search the room.”
He realized that the shooter was probably adjacent to his room. After an officer mentioned that the corridor could be an FBI crime scene, Dougherty was sure about his doubts.
“Quite simply, a man who wanted to kill people—many people, maybe me, maybe my colleagues—had checked into the Washington Hilton, just like I had.”
“No checks, no screening”: The security gaps
Dougherty wrote, “It does not take a security expert to unravel the layers of failure that happened at a Washington, D.C. hotel on Saturday night.”
According to Dougherty, one of the most alarming issues was the absence of basic security protocols inside the hotel. In his account, he reported that neither he nor colleagues had their luggage inspected upon arrival, despite the presence of high-profile attendees, including President Donald Trump and senior cabinet officials.
He wrote, “My colleague arrived on Saturday at 5 p.m. Nobody looked at his luggage either: No magnometers, no hand checks, no I.D. checks. Nothing.”
Dougherty described the movement within the hotel as largely unrestricted. Guests were able to move between floors and access key areas simply by showing event tickets.
“I moved up and down from Floor 10 all day. Nobody ever stopped me and asked me anything. I have never shown my I.D., except to the clerk who checked me in; I have never been searched or frisked when I checked in, or moved in and out of the hotel,” Dougherty detailed.
He added, “The only time I went past a checkpoint was at the same magnetometers that Cole Allen, 31, sprinted past with his gun.”
He detailed that his colleague could get inside with just a copy of his ticket. “I texted them a copy of their ticket. That allowed them to get into the hotel as far as those same magnetometers, entirely unchecked.”
Read more: Dana White opens up about ‘pretty crazy’ experience after WH dinner shooting: ‘I didn’t get down’
“I had slept the night with an assassin in the next room.,” he added.
Delayed response of the security
Dougherty’s account also highlights concerns about the response timeline after the shooting. He described how it took hours for authorities to fully secure the suspect’s hotel room and consider potential threats such as explosives.
He wrote about the bomb squad units that reportedly arrived several hours after Cole Allen opened fire. “When I returned to the first floor, I went outside and made a phone call. To my utter disbelief, uniformed men and women trooped past me in vests marked ‘Bomb Squad.’ And one said to the other, ‘Do you think they’ve got a layout of the corridor and the room?’”
He added, “I had first gone to my room two hours after the shooting. Another hour had gone by. And only now was law enforcement taking seriously the possibility that the room next door to 10235 had been booby-trapped.”
According to Allen’s manifesto, he himself noted the lack of security in writings examined by investigators. He expressed surprise at how easily he was able to navigate the venue.
Dougherty expressed disbelief at the lack of security instinct regarding room 10235 and wrote, “And how could agents not have realized, after they knew who Cole Allen was, that the gunman had been a hotel guest, and that even after he had been neutralized, that other people might be in danger? ”
He added, “How could it take three hours—yes, three hours—to wonder if the bomb squad should come round?”
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