DALLAS (AP) — A suspect in a shooting at a Dallas high school that wounded four students and drew a heavy police response to the campus has been taken into custody, school district officials announced Tuesday night.
Three of the students were injured by gunfire and the fourth was injured in their lower body, according to the Dallas Fire-Rescue Department. The department said units were dispatched to Wilmer-Hutchins High School just after 1 p.m. and that the four students, all of whom are male, were taken to hospitals with injuries ranging from serious to not life-threatening.
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Superintendent Stephanie Elizalde, left center, speaks with a highway patrolman outside Wilmer-Hutchins High School after authorities reported the campus had been secured following reports of a shooting, in Dallas, Tx., Tuesday, April 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
Agents load bags into a crime unit vehicle on the Wilmer-Hutchins High School grounds after authorities reported the campus had been secured following reports of a shooting, in Dallas, Tx., Tuesday, April 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
A woman carries a child as she and a student of Wilmer-Hutchins High School leave after authorities reported the campus had been secured following reports of a shooting, in Dallas, Tx., Tuesday, April 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
An undercover Texas Highway patrolman arrives to Wilmer-Hutchins High School, where police are responding to reports of a shooting in Dallas, Tx., Tuesday, April 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
Students sit on stadium bleachers as Wilmer-Hutchins High School, where police are responding to reports of a shooting at in Dallas, Tx., Tuesday, April 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
Parents are checked in to pick up their children at Wilmer-Hutchins High School, where police are responded to reports of a shooting in Dallas, Tx., Tuesday, April 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
Parents arrive to pick up their children at Wilmer-Hutchins High School, where police are responded to reports of a shooting in Dallas, Tx., Tuesday, April 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
A fire engine blocks a road accessing Wilmer-Hutchins High School, where police are responding to reports of a shooting, in Dallas, Tx., Tuesday, April 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
A woman arrives to a checkpoint outside Wilmer-Hutchins High School, where police are responding to reports of a shooting, in Dallas, Tx., Tuesday, April 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
Sheriff vehicles sit parked in a lot at Wilmer-Hutchins High School, where police are responding to reports of a shooting at in Dallas, Tx., Tuesday, April 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
Police respond to reports of a shooting at Wilmer-Hutchins High School, in Dallas, Tx., Tuesday, April 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
Police respond to reports of a shooting at Wilmer-Hutchins High School, in Dallas, Tx., Tuesday, April 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
“Quite frankly, this is just becoming way too familiar. And it should not be familiar,” Stephanie Elizalde, superintendent of the Dallas Independent School District, said at a news conference.
The school district said in a statement Tuesday night that a suspect was apprehended within hours of the shooting, but didn't provide details about the person or say whether they had been arrested.
Christina Smith, assistant police chief for the Dallas Independent School District, said at the earlier news conference that the investigation was fluid and she did not have any information on what led to the shooting.
The three who were shot were between the ages of 15 and 18, while the age of a person with a “musculoskeletal injury” was not known, Dallas Fire-Rescue said.
School district officials and police gave few details during the news conference held several hours after the shooting, which drew a large number of police and other law enforcement agents to the roughly 1,000-student campus.
“I know that there are many questions and we’re not going to have all of the answers right now because some of the information will be inaccurate,” Elizalde said.
Authorities said other students and their parents had been safely reunited after the students had evacuated earlier in the day from the campus. Aerial television footage taken above the high school Tuesday afternoon showed multiple police vehicles thronging the complex.
Elizalde said that there would be no school at the high school for the rest of the week but that counselors would be available to students.
Smith said that the gun didn't come into the school during “regular intake time.” She said "it was not a failure of our staff, of our protocols, or of the machinery that we have.” But she said she could not elaborate on that.
Shauna Williams, who has two students at the campus, said after the shooting that she was now considering homeschooling them. At the same school last April, one student shot another in the leg.
“I can’t keep going through this as a parent,” she told Dallas television station KDFW. “I’m telling you, it’s very frightening to think about losing your child, your kids.”
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said in a statement that “our hearts go out to the victims of this senseless act of violence.”
Superintendent Stephanie Elizalde, left center, speaks with a highway patrolman outside Wilmer-Hutchins High School after authorities reported the campus had been secured following reports of a shooting, in Dallas, Tx., Tuesday, April 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
Agents load bags into a crime unit vehicle on the Wilmer-Hutchins High School grounds after authorities reported the campus had been secured following reports of a shooting, in Dallas, Tx., Tuesday, April 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
A woman carries a child as she and a student of Wilmer-Hutchins High School leave after authorities reported the campus had been secured following reports of a shooting, in Dallas, Tx., Tuesday, April 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
An undercover Texas Highway patrolman arrives to Wilmer-Hutchins High School, where police are responding to reports of a shooting in Dallas, Tx., Tuesday, April 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
Students sit on stadium bleachers as Wilmer-Hutchins High School, where police are responding to reports of a shooting at in Dallas, Tx., Tuesday, April 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
Parents are checked in to pick up their children at Wilmer-Hutchins High School, where police are responded to reports of a shooting in Dallas, Tx., Tuesday, April 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
Parents arrive to pick up their children at Wilmer-Hutchins High School, where police are responded to reports of a shooting in Dallas, Tx., Tuesday, April 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
A fire engine blocks a road accessing Wilmer-Hutchins High School, where police are responding to reports of a shooting, in Dallas, Tx., Tuesday, April 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
A woman arrives to a checkpoint outside Wilmer-Hutchins High School, where police are responding to reports of a shooting, in Dallas, Tx., Tuesday, April 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
Sheriff vehicles sit parked in a lot at Wilmer-Hutchins High School, where police are responding to reports of a shooting at in Dallas, Tx., Tuesday, April 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
Police respond to reports of a shooting at Wilmer-Hutchins High School, in Dallas, Tx., Tuesday, April 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
Police respond to reports of a shooting at Wilmer-Hutchins High School, in Dallas, Tx., Tuesday, April 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump was uninjured and other top leaders of the United States were evacuated from an annual dinner of White House correspondents on Saturday night after an unspecified threat. There did not immediately appear to be any injuries, and one law-enforcement official said a shooter had opened fire.
Authorities said the incident occurred outside the ballroom where Trump and other guests were seated. It was not immediately clear what happened.
The Secret Service and other authorities swarmed the banquet hall at the Washington Hilton as guests dining on burrata salad ducked under tables by the hundreds. “Out of the way, sir!” someone yelled. Others yelled to duck. From one corner, a “God Bless America” chant began as Trump was escorted off stage. He fell briefly — he apparently tripped — and was helped up by Secret Service agents.
A law enforcement official confirmed there was a shooter but no further details were immediately available. All officials protected by the Secret Service were evacuated. Organizers were attempting to resume the dinner.
Some in the crowd reported hearing what they believed to be five to eight shots fired. The banquet hall — where hundreds of prominent journalists, celebrities and national leaders were awaiting Trump's remarks — was immediately evacuated. Members of the National Guard took up position inside the building as people were allowed to leave but not immediately re-enter. Security outside was also extremely tight.
Those in attendance included Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio — and many other leaders of the Trump administration.
The event appeared set to resume after the disorder. Servers refolded napkins and refilled water glasses in preparation for Trump's return. Another worker prepared the president's teleprompter for the remarks he was scheduled to make. Guest evacuating the ballroom had to step over many broken plates and glasses.
Outside the hotel, members of the National Guard and other authorities flooded the area as helicopters circled overhead.
Generally, the Hilton hotel, where the dinner has taken place for years, remains open to regular guests during the White House Correspondents' Dinner, and security has typically been focused on the ballroom and rather than the hotel at large, with little screening for people not entering the dinner itself. In past years, that has created openings for disruptions in the lobby and other public spaces, including protests in which security moved to remove guests who unfurled banners or staged demonstrations.
U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro posted a short video from the hotel after the incident, saying, “I have been taken out of the ballroom after the sound of the shots fired. The Secret Service is now in charge of this building, this hotel. I just spoke to Mayor Murial Bowser. She is on her way and (Police) Chief Jeffery Carroll is on his way. He will be in charge as soon as he gets here.”
Trump's attendance at Saturday's annual dinner in Washington for his first time as president is putting his administration's often-contentious relationship with the press on full public display.
Trump arrived to an event where the leaders of a nation at war mingled with celebrities, journalists and even a puppet — Triumph the Insult Comic Dog — in a dinner that typically generates debate about whether the relationship between journalists and their sources should include socializing together and putting aside sometimes adversarial relationships.
Trump was being watched closely at the event held by the organization of reporters who cover him and his administration. Past presidents who have attended have generally spoken about the importance of free speech and the First Amendment, adding in some light roasts about individual journalists.
The Republican president did not attend during his first term or the first year of his second. He came as a guest in 2011, sitting in the audience as President Barack Obama, a Democrat, made some jokes about the New York real estate developer. Trump also attended as a private citizen in 2015.
Trump entered the subterranean banquet hall of the Washington Hilton to the strains of “Hail to the Chief” and greeted prominent journalists on the dais, also pausing to laud White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt with a cheerful pointing of his finger.
Past dinners have also featured comedians who poke at presidents. This year, the group opted to hire mentalist Oz Pearlman as the featured entertainment.
Between berating individual reporters, fighting organizations like the Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Associated Press in court and restricting press access to the Pentagon, the administration’s animus toward journalists has been a fixture of Trump’s second term.
On the eve of the dinner, nearly 500 retired journalists signed a petition calling on the association "to forcefully demonstrate opposition to President Trump’s efforts to trample freedom of the press.”
The WHCA president, CBS News reporter Weijia Jiang, said the organization was fighting for all different forms of the press that have a line in to the American people. “I don't think people realize how closely we are working with the White House,” she said on CSPAN before the dinner convened. “The relationship is important. It can be complicated. It can be intense. But it is robust.”
Welcoming guests, Jiang alluded to the contentious relationship in thanking Leavitt “for everything your team does to work with us every day, whether you like it or not.”
Veteran reporter Manu Raju of CNN, as he entered the Washington Hilton for the dinner, said it was not his role to express his opinion on Trump's relationship with the press. “I'm not an activist,” he said. “My job is not to protest.”
A few dozen protesters stood across the hotel in the runup to the event. One was dressed in a prison uniform, wearing a Pete Hegseth mask and red gloves. Another carried a sign saying “Journalism is dead.”
Journalists often invite sources as guests at the dinner. It will be noticed Saturday whether administration officials who have also expressed hostility to the press will attend, and with whom they will be sitting. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he was invited by the New York Post; Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Secretary of State Marco Rubio were NBC guests.
The Associated Press invited a former Trump official that it sued last year. Taylor Budowich, a former White House deputy chief of staff who crafted communications policy, was a named defendant last year when the AP sued the administration after it reduced its access to the president because the news outlet did not follow Trump's lead in renaming the Gulf of Mexico.
“We maintain professional relationships with people across the political spectrum because we are nonpartisan by design — focused on reporting the facts in the public's interest,” AP spokesman Patrick Maks said.
The White House correspondents will also hand out awards for exemplary reporting. That includes some stories that displeased Trump, such as one from the Journal about a birthday message Trump once sent to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The story led to a presidential lawsuit.
AP journalists Alanna Durkin Richer, Michael Balsamo, Zeke Miller and Anna Johnson contributed to this report. David Bauder writes about the intersection of media and entertainment for The Associated Press. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder and https://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.social.
Members of law enforcement respond during the White House Correspondents Dinner, Saturday, April 25, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Guests leave the White House Correspondents Dinner following an incident Saturday, April 25, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Allison Robbert)
The National Guard respond to an incident at the White House Correspondents Dinner, Saturday, April 25, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his wife Cheryl Hines pose for photographers at the annual White House Correspondents' Association Dinner, Saturday, April 25, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
President Donald Trump arrives to the White House Correspondents Dinner, Saturday, April 25, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Allison Robbert)
Code Pink co-founder Medea Benjamin speaks to the media after being removed from the White House Correspondents Dinner, Saturday, April 25, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Allison Robbert)
People are seen outside of the White House Correspondents Dinner, Saturday, April 25, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)
President Donald Trump's motorcade arrives at the White House Correspondents Dinner at the Washington Hilton, Saturday, April 25, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)
A woman is escorted from the White House Correspondents' Dinner, Saturday, April 25, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)
President Donald Trump arrives on Air Force One at Palm Beach International Airport in West Palm Beach Fla., Friday, April 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
