Scott Bradford: Off on a Tangent
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Shots Fired During Correspondents’ Dinner

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Updated

President Donald Trump (R) and other high-ranking U.S. officials were evacuated from a ballroom at the Washington Hilton Hotel after an attacker charged a security checkpoint and fired at U.S. Secret Service officers. The ballroom was the site of the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, an annual event attended by numerous administration officials, media personalities, reporters, and their families.

The suspect carried several weapons including a handgun, shotgun, and multiple knives. He fired the shotgun once, striking a uniformed Secret Service officer in his bullet-resistant vest. The officer—who was injured but is expected to make a full recovery—fired five shots from his service weapon in return; none struck the assailant.

The gunman was later identified as Cole Tomas Allen, a thirty-one year old man from Torrance, California, who was a guest at the hotel. Allen has been charged with multiple federal crimes including the attempted assassination of the president. Though he was not hit by gunfire, he was injured during apprehension and transported to an area hospital. Allen’s hotel room and his California home were searched by federal authorities and the investigation is ongoing.

The remainder of the dinner was postponed and attendees were ordered out of the building. Trump gave a press briefing at the White House about two hours after the incident; he thanked Secret Service officers for their quick response to the attack and praised Weijia Jiang, senior White House correspondent for CBS News and current president of the White House Correspondents’ Association. Trump said he wanted to return to the event, but had to follow law enforcement protocol. Trump and Jiang intend to reschedule the dinner within thirty days.

The White House Correspondents’ Dinner is the main annual event for the White House Correspondents’ Association, an organization that partly governs press access to the president and other White House officials. Since President Calvin Coolidge (R) attended in 1924, and with the sole exception of Trump’s first term, every president has attended at least one of these dinners during their term in office. This was Trump’s first time attending; other attendees included Vice President J.D. Vance (R), many members of Trump’s cabinet, members of the U.S. Congress, the White House correspondents for most major media organizations, and many family members and guests.

The Washington Hilton Hotel was also the site of the March 30, 1981, attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan (R).

Update, April 26, 2026, 11:30 a.m.: This post has been updated to add additional background information about the correspondents’ dinner and to improve clarity.

Update, April 30, 2026, 1:00 p.m.: Updated to include the exact number of shots fired by the suspect and the injured officer; additional minor clarifications.

Special Election 2026 Results

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Updated

Last updated: May 1, 2026, 6:10 a.m.

Ballot Issues
VA Redist. Amendment
100.00% of precincts reporting
Yes:51.69%
No:48.31%

April 20, 2026, 6:45 p.m.: Off on a Tangent is providing limited live coverage of today’s special election results. Polls are scheduled to close at 7:00 p.m. and results should start coming in via the Virginia Department of Elections soon after.

7:06 p.m.: Polls are beginning to close (anybody who was in line at 7:00 p.m. may vote, so it doesn’t happen precisely at the scheduled time). I expect results to start appearing on the Virginia Department of Elections systems soon.

7:27 p.m.: Results are coming in; the referendum is currently too close to call.

8:10 p.m.: With over 70% of precincts reporting, the race remains too close to call.

8:48 p.m.: Over 90% of precincts are now reported and the race is still too close to call.

8:55 p.m.: Some major media outlets—including the Associated Press and Decision Desk HQ—have called the race for “yes” (that is, they believe the referendum has passed). They are probably correct, but my analysis does not yet support calling it.

9:26 p.m.: Tangent call: The redistricting referendum has passed.

9:45 p.m.: This concludes Off on a Tangent’s live coverage for the evening. The results will continue to update periodically and I will continue to post relevant updates (as time permits) until the Virginia State Board of Elections certifies the result.

April 29, 2026, 1:34 p.m.: The Virginia State Board of Elections plans to meet on Friday, May 1, at 1:00 p.m. for the purpose of certifying the election results. However, the Tazewell Circuit Court has issued an injunction blocking the certification. The Supreme Court of Virginia has allowed that order to stand pending its decision on the referendum’s legality.

South Riding Board of Directors, 2026

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South Riding Proprietary

The South Riding Proprietary is a homeowners’ association (HOA) that acts as a de facto local government for the South Riding community in Loudoun County, Virginia. At the proprietary’s annual meeting on May 19, 2026, three of the seven seats on the Board of Directors are up for election. Members of the board serve three year terms. South Riding property owners may cast their votes by attending the annual meeting in person, by mailing a paper ballot, or with a mailed PIN on Votegrity.net.

The three directors at the end of their terms are Michael Beardslee, Marilyn Gardner, and Mark Pontello. Beardslee and Gardner are seeking reelection, and are joined on the ballot by Karen MacDowell and Robert Greene. Property owners may vote for up to three candidates, and have the option to write-in other candidates.

Under the Proprietary’s bylaws, at least ten percent of South Riding property owners must cast votes to achieve a quorum. If a quorum is not achieved, the Board of Directors cannot seat new members or perform work, and the meeting will be recessed for up to a month. When the meeting resumes, the quorum requirement drops to five percent. If a quorum is still not achieved, the meeting may be repeatedly recessed and resumed until reaching the five percent threshold.

Read more . . .

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Back in January, Melissa and I went on a seven-day cruise to the eastern Caribbean. First we spent a few days in San Juan, Puerto Rico, then we boarded the Norwegian Epic for a journey to the British Virgin Islands, Antigua, Barbados, Saint Lucia, Sint Maarten and Saint Martin, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

It was a good thing that we decided to spend that time in San Juan before the cruise, because that meant we were already in Puerto Rico before the airspace shut down for U.S. military operations in Venezuela. Unfortunately a lot of people missed the cruise—I heard rumors that more than a thousand of the expected passengers didn’t make it.

Anyway, this trip was mostly for relaxing. I didn’t take my “real” camera, so all these photos are from my phone, and I didn’t even take pictures of everything  . . . but I still wanted to share the ones I did take. It was a good time.

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Virginia Statewide Ballot Issue, Special, 2026

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Seal of Virginia

Citizens of Virginia will be voting in a special election on April 21, 2026, on a referendum to amend the Constitution of Virginia. Early voting begins on March 6.

Under Article XII, Section 1, of the state constitution, the process requires a proposed amendment to pass both houses of the General Assembly in two sessions with an intervening general election for the House of Delegates, after which it is presented to the voters in a referendum. If approved, the state constitution is modified, and the change can only be reversed by another amendment.

The Virginia General Assembly violated voters’ civil rights to equal protection under the law during the adoption and scheduling processes for this proposed amendment. The first passage occurred during (not before) the 2025 general election, so the proposed amendment cannot be considered for a second passage until after the 2027 general election. Additionally, early voting is scheduled to begin only forty-nine days after the purported second passage; the state constitution requires an interval of at least ninety days.

This referendum is therefore unconstitutional, and it is void regardless of the result. But there is no guarantee that the Supreme Court of Virginia will do the right thing and invalidate it, so I will offer my usual endorsement. I strongly encourage voters to participate so their will is reflected if the court refuses to do its duty.

Read more . . .

Scott Bradford is a writer and technologist who has been putting his opinions online since 1995. He believes in three inviolable human rights: life, liberty, and property. He is a Catholic Christian who worships the trinitarian God described in the Nicene Creed. Scott is a husband, nerd, pet lover, and AMC/Jeep enthusiast with a B.S. degree in public administration from George Mason University.