Security breakdowns at the Washington Hilton are coming under intense scrutiny after a would-be assassin allegedly slipped through gaps ahead of Saturday’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner attended by Donald Trump.
Daily Beast Executive Editor Hugh Dougherty, who was staying in the room next door to suspect Cole Tomas Allen, described what he called glaring lapses in security during an appearance on MS NOW.
Dougherty had earlier laid out his experience in a firsthand account, saying the suspect moved through the hotel with alarming ease.
“A man who wanted to kill people—many people, maybe me, maybe my colleagues—had checked into the Washington Hilton, just like I had. He had used his access to move from floor 10 to the ballroom lobby, just like I had,” Dougherty wrote.
In the interview, he pointed to confusion and delays in the aftermath of the shooting attempt, including what he said was a roughly three-hour gap before a bomb squad arrived.
Dougherty recalled trying to return to his room to grab a phone charger but being stopped by hotel security and uniformed officers, who told him to come back later. When he returned about an hour afterward, he still could not get in. A detective then told him they were waiting on a judge.
“At that moment, I realized if you’re waiting for a judge, by implication, you’re waiting for a warrant,” Dougherty said, adding that it became clear the suspect was likely a guest inside the hotel.
After stepping outside to take a call, he said he watched the bomb squad finally enter the building.
“It seems odd that three hours passed from the time that I guess this shooting happened and the bomb squad came in,” Catherine Rampell said during the segment.
“It does seem odd, yes,” Dougherty replied before emphasizing that “all of us who were there felt immense gratitude for the courage of those officers and agents who tackled the shooter” and that he could “not speak more highly of the hotel staff.”
“I think the question here is more about the planning and the preparation that went on,” he added.
Dougherty also said basic screening measures appeared to be missing in the lead-up to the high-profile event.
“There were never any searches,” he said, noting there were no magnetometers in use except at a checkpoint directly outside the ballroom.
“The only time I went past a checkpoint was at the same magnetometers that Cole Allen, 31, sprinted past with his gun,” Dougherty wrote.
According to senior law enforcement sources who spoke to CBS News, Allen allegedly used interior stairwells to avoid heavily trafficked areas, eventually emerging on a terrace level above the ballroom where a pre-event reception had been held.
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