We were under the table before we knew what was happening.
One moment a military band was parading out of the Washington Hilton’s cavernous ballroom; hundreds of journalists and government officials, including two dozen of my Atlantic colleagues and myself dressed in our best or borrowed black tie, had turned to our arugula salads.
The next moment, armed agents—maybe Secret Service, maybe police, maybe hotel guards; it was hard to tell from where we were huddled under a tablecloth—were pushing their way through mounds of people, climbing over chairs, rushing to the stage, where President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump just moments before had been seated.
Just before 8:40 p.m., trays of plates and tableware fell to the floor with a crash and they screamed “Get down! Get down! Get under the table! Abajo! Abajo! ” There was at least one popping sound from the north end of the ballroom. People by the ballroom doors started to duck. Then plainclothes security rushed through the door.
One attendee sitting in the upper level of the ballroom right by the doors said he heard five or six hollow shots close by, and saw a Secret Service agent with his gun drawn backing down towards the ballroom, before diving under the tables. Andrew Kolvet, a Turning Point USA spokesman who was seated at a table near the dais, said he heard a “pop pop.”