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

Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images hide caption Stay up to date with our Politics newsletter, sent weekly. 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. Politics Details emerge of alleged shooter at White House correspondents' dinner 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. Here's how the night unfolded, according to NPR journalists in attendance. 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. "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. 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. Secret Service agents rush into the ballroom at the Washington Hilton as attendees shelter on the floor. All of them were hustled out of sight. The Picture Show Photos: The aftermath of the White House Correspondents' Dinner shooting "You had Secret Service, you had officers in FBI jackets and DEA jackets," he said. Kennedy Jr. and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin. From the hallway, Shivaram saw armed Secret Service agents rushing those same Cabinet members into two small office rooms, "basically just trying to keep as many people safe as they could." "And then about four minutes after those shots rang out, I saw a Secret Service agent walk by and [they] said that the shooter was in custody," she added. Back in the ballroom, Ordoñez described an "eerie silence" and "a lot of confusion" among the attendees watching from the floor. "As they were evacuated from the room, watching the security officers' shoulders drop a little bit, I feel like our shoulders started to drop a little bit and our heads started to pop up," Ordoñez says. Guests depart the Washington Hilton amid a heavy police presence on Saturday night. Ulysse Bellier/AFP via Getty Images hide caption Dorning estimates people in the room felt safe enough to emerge from underneath the tables after about four or five minutes. "Everyone pretty much went into reporting mode as soon as they were up from the floor," she said. Ordoñez said initial reports from the other journalists and attendees he spoke with varied: Some heard three bangs, some heard five, and some said they could smell gunpowder. It was still unclear at that moment whether gunshots had been fired in the room or outside the room. There were also questions as to whether the night's programming would continue. Ordoñez said White House staffers told him they were unsure whether Trump was still in the building or planning to come back. Politics A suspect identified in correspondents' dinner shooting "First, we heard that President Trump was going to return and speak and the program was going to continue as scheduled," Dorning said. "Even just going up the escalators, they are like one-person escalators," Bustillo said. "And [women] are all in long dresses down to our feet. ET, though reporters didn't get a good view of him exiting the car. A short while later, Trump spoke to reporters — many of them still wearing black-tie attire — in the White House press briefing room. Trump, flanked by Vance, Patel, the first lady and other high-ranking officials, said he initially thought the distant disturbance was the sound of a tray being dropped. The president praised the Secret Service and law enforcement for their quick response. He also thanked the press for their "responsible coverage." "This was an event dedicated to the freedom of speech that was supposed to bring together members of both parties with members of the press and in a certain way it did," he said. Sponsor Message Become an NPR sponsor