A chaotic White House Correspondents' Dinner, as told by NPR reporters in the room

Politics A chaotic White House Correspondents' Dinner, as told by NPR reporters in the room April 26, 20263:52 PM ET By Rachel Treisman Attendees hid in and then fled from the Washington Hilton after shots were fired at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner on Saturday night. Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images The White House Correspondents' Dinner, an annual event that brings together top government officials and the journalists who cover them, descended into chaos on Saturday after shots rang out at the Washington Hilton. Just minutes into the dinner, guests heard muffled popping sounds as a gunman attempted to charge past a security checkpoint. President Trump — who was attending the event for the first time since taking office — was rushed out of the building by Secret Service agents, as were First Lady Melania Trump, Vice President JD Vance and a slew of cabinet officials. The night ended with a suspect apprehended, a law enforcement officer injured and a press conference at the White House, where Trump promised the dinner would be rescheduled. Sponsor Message Politics Details emerge of alleged shooter at White House correspondents' dinner Hundreds of attendees, many of them reporters and lawmakers, took shelter beneath their tables amidst the chaos, before evacuating the hotel and — in many cases — shifting back into work more. Several NPR journalists were among them, and quickly jumped on the air to share their experiences and observations. Here's how the night unfolded, according to NPR journalists in attendance. Shots rang out toward the end of the first course Less than an hour into dinner, around 8:30 p.m. ET, attendees heard what sounded like gunshots coming from the back of the room. "People were just finishing up their … salads, and plates were being cleared, when we heard this 'bang, bang, bang,'" said White House Correspondent Franco Ordoñez. "And then, just, crash." Everything went crashing to the floor, Ordoñez said: plates, trays and people taking shelter. While people didn't know exactly what had just happened, attendees and staff alike knew to get down immediately. "There were several members of the waitstaff who hit the ground next to our table, with one woman in particular just crying that she didn't want to die — just terrified in that moment, in a way that I think I will always remember," said Courtney Dorning, a senior editor for All Things Considered. Sponsor Message White House Correspondent Deepa Shivaram had a different vantage point. Shivaram was one of the roughly dozen journalists traveling in the rotating presidential pool on Saturday night. During the dinner portion of the event, pool reporters were charging their laptops at tables in a hallway — closer to the security checkpoint where the shooting occurred — when they distinctly heard the sound of gunshots. "We didn't have eyes on what was going on, but it was very clear that something had happened," Shivaram said. Security agents hustled officials out of the room Secret Service agents rush into the ballroom at the Washington Hilton as attendees shelter on the floor. Andrew Harnik/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Andrew Harnik/Getty Images Videos from the scene show Secret Service rushing to the stage, where Trump was sitting with the first lady and vice president, mentalist Oz Pearlman — the night's headliner — as well as White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt and…

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