BREAKING: Loud bangs reportedly heard near WH Correspondents' Dinner

This is a Fox News alert. I'm Chandley Painter live in New York. We do have breaking news out of Washington, D.C. The latest from the White House Correspondent's Center, the Secret Service has a person in custody after shots were fired at the Correspondent's Dinner. We are now just learning details. It is all brand new. Let's bring in John Roberts. He's on the phone with me right now. John, what can you tell us more about this shooting? Well, it didn't appear to actually occur inside the ballroom where

we're all assembled for this dinner. The president up on the day, yes, along with the press secretary, the first lady, a number of other dignitaries, and of course, literally every member of the cabinet inside the room, a lot of them sitting with us here at Fox. All we heard was the sudden rushing and commotion, and the Secret Service and all of the various agencies that protect people like Speaker Mike Johnson, who was here, came rushing into the room. People were told to get down.

They started taking the protectees out. The president was whisked out of here in a heartbeat, along with everybody else who was on the head table up on the dais. It doesn't appear that anything happened inside the room. I'm hearing reports from inside the room here that if there were shots fired, it was outside of the room, but out of an abundance of caution, obviously, because you don't know if it's

a single person or if there may be others attached to whatever happened, that they got everybody out of here. I've been to so many of these correspondence associations, and nothing even remotely like this has ever happened. But the fact that this is President Trump's first time being at this dinner, the controversy, obviously, that a lot of people on the left see

about the Iran war and various other things that this administration has pursued. I mean, it's obviously not with it outside of the realm of possibility. Something like this would happen. And certainly, Erica Kirsch just being taken out right beside me. You can imagine the trauma that she's experiencing right now after what happened in Utah last year. So, I mean, a lot of people very upset.

I think the dinner for all intents and purposes is over at this point. But we're just trying to figure out what should have happened from here on.

Right, now John, are you in the room and were you able to hear any of the shots?

No, nobody, we're at tables that are up close to the very front of this room. We didn't hear any noise at all. The only indication that something was amiss is when the Secret Service, Capitol Police, came rushing into the room to get the protectees, and the president was quickly whisked off of the stage.

The counter-assault team from the Secret Service came out with their weapons ready to fire, if necessary, in case the threat actually entered the room. And I'm being told by my wife, Cindy Steinman, that the event is officially over. It's just gonna take some time to clear the room,

which is really a shame because everybody had very much looked forward to hearing from the president tonight, this being the first White House Correspondents Association dinner that he had attended.

Exactly. Very shocking information. Do we know any? I know you don't know a lot of information. You're inside the room. But is there any word on anybody injured?

We know one person is arrested. Like you said, the Secret Service was able to apparently detain the shooter. This is something for us not in DC who have never been to a White House Correspondents Dinner. Give us the layout, the location, and how this was

even able to happen, John. Well, first of all, the Correspondents Dinner

takes place in a huge ballroom here in the Washington Hilton, which of course is famous from back in the 1980s. This is where Ronald Reagan was shot after attending an event here. He was a shooter that's been in the 1980s, this is where Ronald Reagan was shot after attending an event here.

He was...

He was... It might be a shooter that's been in the lobby, possibly. He was walking back out to get it back into his limousine when he was shot. So obviously, that's something that has, you know, gone along with the reputation of this hotel over the decades. I've never seen anything like this happen here since then though and in terms of anybody being injured at the dinner itself I didn't see

anybody injured. There was a huge commotion that there are probably a couple of thousand people at the very least who are jammed in this room literally like so did. The fact that I haven't seen anybody who's injured considering how people were sort of climbing over tables and ducking down under the tables, really is quite remarkable. You think that there might be at least some bumps and bruises, but nothing that I've seen at this point.

Yeah, I can't imagine how scary that would be to live through, John. Just take us through those moments of what you heard. You said the president was rushed away, the Speaker of the House. What else were you seeing and hearing?

You want to. And I'm hearing I'm hearing reports that the shooter may have been engaged by Secret Service outside.

Right.

Yes, that's what we've been also seeing. The Secret Service was able to scoop in and arrest and detain the shooter. We don't know how many shots were fired, but we do know that it was outside of the ballroom, not where all of the people are packed in like sardines, as John Roberts has said. We know we have a lot of Fox News people on air and off air that are at this dinner, right, John? I mean, this is a room full of very important political people as well, right?

Why am I not surprised? President says he's coming back.

I think we may have lost John Roberts on the phone, but we do have-

No, no, I'm still here.

Okay, John, hey.

I'm still here, Brett's here as well.

Go ahead, Brett.

Yeah, let's take Brett. Thanks, Brett Baer. Talk to us about what happened.

We're trying to figure out exactly where the shot was fired from. There's some talk that it was fired from the lighting box above the door that heads to the lobby. And we don't, as John was saying, we don't know if anyone was hit,

but we're getting word that the shooter may have been hit. It happened so quickly that you heard this crash, and then the Secret Service ran in. The president was out in moments, and everybody went under the table. I mean, I'm talking the entire ballroom

started to go under their tables, and the Secret Service started running, guns drawn. They had the CAT team out, and the President and the First Lady were out, as well as the Vice President, in a matter of seconds. But we're trying to get info about where the shot was.

There's at least two people saying that they thought it came from the light box above the doors to the lobby and we're trying to get ground truth on that.

Right.

Brett, I know that you're there at the scene. What was the security like in even entering this building that someone could have even gotten close enough to fire shots within that range, within the lobby as you think maybe where it did happen?

It was a tight security. I mean, you had to go through magnetometers to get into the dining room. You had to get through magnetometers to get through this. And you know, but this seemed like it was outside the hall itself or at least looking into the hall. There are some lighting boxes, like for lights in the ceiling. And, um,

that's where I'm saying that there's some reports that may have come out of there. So listen, we're going to talk to some, some of the secret service guys here and see if we can get some ground truth, but this is, you can't believe how 2000 plus people go under the, uh, go under their table and rushing around for the Secret Service.

Absolutely. What was it like in that moment? It had to be quite scary to be seeing the president swept away and other dignitaries.

Yeah, I'm walking right now in front of the dais and being esc exported out here and and you know everybody left like in seconds and all you heard was this big boom and then people started started running.

Wow. Are you seeing anyone that may have been hurt from trying to escape? You know, you mentioned possibly shots fired a person in custody that person may or may not have been hurt from trying to escape. We know you mentioned possibly shots fired a person in custody that person may or may not have been shot. We're of course developing trying to confirm the details of the shooting. We don't know yet if anyone has been injured.

That was not the shooter, but the Secret Service swooped in immediately after shots were fired. Thankfully, Brett, as you said, not within this room full of a couple of thousands of people. That person did not make it that far.

I mean, I can't tell you whether it was in or not, but we are walking towards the towards the place where they think it was happening.

OK, it's it is, of course, a situation that I'm sure they're trying to cordon off parts for safety for this investigation for those still there. But it seems as though, Brett, that the threat has been neutralized. There's no continuing threat at this point, right? You are able to move around and feel safe.

People are starting to exit the building and with security.

Right. This is an event that is really an iconic event. Right. You've been to this event for years. Is this something I mean, people would not expect this to happen at an event in D.C. where the president security top notch.

Sounds like we might have lost Brett. It's John.

Have you still got me? Yes, I got you, John. We're here. We're listening to anything you're learning and seeing.

Yeah, I think that I think that we might have lost Brett for a second. The cell service is in terrific care. You can imagine, you know, the trauma that some of the people who are here tonight experienced is that, you know, mentioned a moment ago, Erica Kirk was one of our guests here at one of our Fox tables. And she was taken out by her security, just literally right in front of me. And the look on her face, I mean, clearly, you know, she was, must have been going back

to that moment in Utah. And then remember the event that she was supposed to have with J.D. Vance in Ohio that she canceled because of security threats. So when you consider the number of dignitaries that were here, from the president of the United States to the vice president to the Speaker of the House, to literally every cabinet member, I think they probably kept one cabinet member back, the designated survivor policy

that they had when there were addresses to the joint meeting of Congress. But so many high-powered people in this room tonight that it would obviously be a huge security issue, which is why we saw such a large presence of Secret Service, even greater than I've seen at these events in the past. I had Connecticut Avenue blocked off,

the entire area around the hotel was blocked off. And in order to get back in here in this area where the ballroom is, you had to go through multiple layers of security. So for somebody to get in here with a weapon, they either somehow bypass security

or they knew a way in and might've been around security. And if as Brett said, whatever it was that happened came from a light box above a set of doors that I'm looking at right now, I don't know how you would have accessed that.

And it may be accessible from the floor above, and it may be that the layer of security on the floor above wasn't what it is here. So I would imagine that any opening that has access to this room would have been subject

to heavy scrutiny.

Can you hear me?

Yeah, John, these are...

I think we got Brett back. Okay, great.

Yeah, yeah.

What are you learning?

I'm in the Fox News 30-year party room. We are holding here, and as we were coming in here, the Secret Service CAP team came in and they're still going through each room. They're going room by room, checking rooms. They are telling us that we are going to leave now because they are still going searching room to room.

So we are hearing rumors that there was somebody that was engaged and that maybe someone has been shot but and that it may be the shooter but we have no information and right now these guys are these guys are coming in we're going out this way sir and they are someone's hanging in the back room okay all right let's go. Follow this guy. Yeah,

for those tuning in, we are listening to Brett Bayer. He is live on the ground inside the hotel where the White House Correspondents Dinner is taking place. We're getting real live updates from our team there in the room. We we've heard from a Fox News producer who was there that said they heard at least six shots what sounded like gunshots again these are observations from people on the ground

nothing official yet coming from any of the investigators or the authorities but it seems like a very scary situation happening at the correspondence dinner

be sure to LIKE and subscribe for all the Fox News latest on YouTube and catch be sure to LIKE and subscribe for all the Fox News latest on YouTube and catch full shows streaming now on Fox 1