Inside the WHCD Ballroom: What Zachary Levi Saw as the Shooting Unfolded

Shots rang out at this year’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner, sending chaos rippling through the Washington Hilton ballroom. Shazam! star Zachary Levi, 45, told USA Today on Saturday, April 25, that the sudden bangs jolted his table.

White House Correspondents Dinner turned into an action sequence Saturday night, and yes, Zachary Levi was right in the middle of it. Not exactly how you want to spend a Saturday in a tux.

Levi, 45, says he was sitting at USA Today’s table inside the Washington Hilton with Speaker of the House Mike Johnson and Johnson’s wife, Kelly, when the chaos kicked off. He heard a series of loud bangs, clocked them immediately, and did the same mental math most of us would do: could be something falling in a hallway… or it could be gunfire. Then the room started to shift — heads turned, people ducked, and Secret Service swarmed the space hunting for principals to move out fast.

What actually happened (minus the confusion)

• Early in the program, a 31-year-old man rushed a security checkpoint outside the event. Gunfire was exchanged. The suspect — reportedly carrying a shotgun, a handgun, and multiple knives — was taken into custody.
• One Secret Service agent was shot in the chest. His ballistic vest did its job; he was treated, released from the hospital, and sent home.
• Inside the ballroom, Levi says the immediate reaction was a mix of instinct and uncertainty: people dropping below tables, a lot of commotion, Secret Service pouring in to extract high-profile guests — administration officials and lawmakers — as quickly as possible.
• President Donald Trump, First Lady Melania Trump, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, Vice President JD Vance, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his wife, Cheryl Hines, along with other officials and lawmakers, were promptly evacuated.
• For a beat, word in the room was that the dinner might actually continue with updates to follow — which Levi found baffling given the circumstances. Ultimately, security concerns won out and the rest of the event was canceled.
• Trump said the shooter was apprehended and later told reporters the dinner would be rescheduled within 30 days.
• No other injuries were reported. Authorities say the suspect wrote an alleged manifesto about targeting Trump and top cabinet members. He is expected to be arraigned in federal court on Monday, April 27, and faces multiple charges.

Levi’s account tracks with the whiplash everyone felt: the weird limbo between a potential active-shooter situation and the impulse to keep the black-tie show rolling. Very D.C. move — until it wasn’t.

"I want to thank the first lady, that was a rather traumatic experience for her. We’re not going to let anybody take over our society, we’re not going to cancel things out ... we can’t do that. We wanted to stay tonight, I fought like hell to stay, but it was protocol ... there was a lot of action going on."

Bottom line: swift response, one agent injured but saved by his vest, the suspect in custody, and a black-tie media night paused mid-course. If you felt whiplash reading that, imagine being in the room.