In Washington, at the Washington Hilton hotel, a shooting occurred during the annual White House Correspondents' Dinner. This event has again raised questions about the security of events involving top US officials. Despite the work of the Secret Service and other units, the attacker opened fire without entering the secure zone, causing panic among guests and leading to the urgent evacuation of politicians.
Witness to the incident, political scientist Nikolai Volkovsky, shared details of what happened in an interview with the program 'Daytime Format' on the Atameken Business TV channel. He described how security was organized at the hotel, where he was during the shooting, and what measures were taken after the incident.
'When checking into the Washington Hilton, they asked for my room number. I checked in closer to evening, around 1:00 PM — 7 hours before the event started. The road was not yet closed, the Secret Service and other services had not set up metal detectors. That was done later. At 5:30 PM, a pre-party organized by Fox News began, which ended half an hour before the event. Metal detectors were installed only at the entrance to the ballroom where President Trump was located. So I don't think there was a security problem,' Volkovsky said.
According to him, according to data published by a federal agency, the perpetrator checked into the hotel on the same day. Since rooms were available, he easily booked a room. Although The New York Times reported the absence of metal detectors, Volkovsky noted that Secret Service and TSA agents checked each person. The attacker fired just before the metal detectors, i.e., without entering the secure event zone.
