Michael Glantz, a senior talent agent, says he ‘wasn’t scared’ and ‘wanted to watch’ as chaos unfolded at the event

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A guest at the White House correspondents’ dinner retained his table manners and was spotted calmly tucking into his salad course on Saturday, soon after gunfire rang out and heavily armed Secret Service agents swarmed into the ballroom of the Washington Hilton hotel.

A video clip captured Michael Glantz, a senior talent agent with the Creative Artists Agency, leisurely forking leaves from his burrata salad into his mouth against a backdrop of a stage just yards away, by then empty of everyone save a rifle-wielding officer in tactical combat gear.

Alleged shooter, identified as Cole Tomas Allen, charged with three federal crimes in White House press gala attack

The suspected gunman who tried to storm the White House correspondents’ dinner appeared in federal court on Monday and was charged with three federal crimes, including attempting to assassinate the president.

The alleged shooter, identified by law enforcement agencies as Cole Tomas Allen, a 31-year-old man from Torrance in southern California, was charged with attempting to assassinate the US president, transportation of firearms to commit a felony, and unlawful discharge of a firearm during violence.

Questions raised about political violence, security and gun control after brazen attack at event attended by top officials

• White House press dinner shooting aftermath – latest updates

A stunned Washington faced searching questions about political violence and gun control on Sunday after shots were fired at a prestigious media gala attended by Donald Trump and senior White House officials.

A man targeted a Secret Service agent at a security checkpoint in the Washington Hilton hotel the previous night before being tackled and arrested. Trump and Melania Trump were rushed out of the annual White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) dinner as guests dived for cover under tables.

Acting attorney general says suspect was believed to have been targeting top Trump administration officials

• White House press dinner shooting aftermath – latest updates

The gunman who tried to breach the ballroom at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in Washington DC on Saturday night is believed to have been targeting Donald Trump and senior members of his administration, the acting US attorney general, Todd Blanche, said on Sunday, although his exact motive has not yet become clear.

The suspect, who is in custody after being subdued by members of law enforcement as he rushed through the hotel venue, could be charged with trying to assassinate the US president, Blanche said.

Shooting reveals how political violence has become feature of American life on a night dedicated to press freedom

Ahead of this year’s White House correspondents’ dinner, conversations centered on the role of the media and freedom of the press as journalists prepared to dine with the president.

Instead of a speech stacked with heated barbs against the media, the event ended like many in the US do: with gun violence.

No indication grandmother knew what Markel Lee, 17, was suspected of doing, and she later identified him to police

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A 17-year-old accused of murder in Thursday’s mass shooting at a Louisiana mall that left a high school senior dead while wounding five others got a ride away from the crime scene from his grandmother – and was arrested after investigators used surveillance video and license plate readers to track her car down, authorities allege.

There is no indication that Markel Lee’s grandmother knew what he was suspected of doing prior to his arrest, which evidently occurred after she told police that her grandson was in a surveillance image they showed her depicting someone seemingly aiming a pistol toward the shopping center food court where the shooting occurred.

Officials say the suspect in the shooting, which left another officer in critical condition, has been taken into custody

A shooting at a Chicago hospital on Saturday morning left a police officer dead and another critically injured, according to Chicago police superintendent Larry Snelling.

The suspect, who has not been publicly identified, is in custody, according to Andre Vasquez, alderperson for the city’s 40th ward.

OpenAI said the company had identified an account using abuse-detection efforts, but determined at the time it didn’t meet threshold for legal referral

The head of OpenAI has written a letter apologizing that his company didn’t alert law enforcement about the online behavior of a person who shot and killed eight people in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia.

In the letter posted on Friday, Sam Altman expressed his deepest condolences to the entire community.

Martha Odom, 16, died from a gunshot wound to the chest according to the local coroner’s statement

A high school senior has been identified as the person killed in a mass shooting that also wounded five others when two groups exchanged gunfire inside the food court at a mall in Louisiana’s capital city on Thursday afternoon, according to officials.

Martha Odom, 16, died from a gunshot wound to the chest, according to a statement issued Friday by the local coroner’s office.

Bogotá, Colombia – Mexican authorities have said they will tighten security around tourist sites following a shooting on Monday that killed a Canadian tourist and injured twelve others.

The attack at the Teotihuacan pyramids by a lone gunman has renewed concerns about fan safety ahead of the 2026 World Cup Games, which will be co-hosted by Mexico. 

But Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum sought to re-assure visitors, maintaining that mass shootings are rare in the country and describing the incident as a one-off.

“Our obligation as a government is to take the appropriate measures to ensure that a situation like this does not happen again,” said Sheinbaum on Tuesday morning.

Mexican Security Secretary Omar García Harfuch added that state security forces had been ordered to “immediately strengthen security” at tourist destinations across the country.  

The Teotihuacan pyramids are a UNESCO Heritage Site and one of Mexico’s most visited archaeological complexes.

But Sheinbaum was also careful to stress that attacks like the one on Monday are incredibly rare in Mexico: “Clearly, we all know — Mexicans know — that this is something that had not previously taken place.”

Unlike in the United States, guns are difficult to obtain legally in Mexico and mass shootings targeting members of the public are uncommon.

While Mexico has grappled for years with high homicide rates, shootings tend to happen in specific areas marked by cartel violence and rarely affect tourists.

Ideological motivations

Rather than a sign of broader security struggles, authorities maintain that Monday’s shooting was perpetrated by a ‘lone wolf’ actor driven by extremist views.

Sergio Ortiz Borbolla, head of campaigns and communications at the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, maintained that Julio César Jasso Ramírez, 27, was a Nazi sympathizer inspired by other mass shootings. 

“Although the investigation is still ongoing, several factors point to an ideological motive,” said Ortiz.

He noted that Monday’s shooting happened on Adolf Hitler’s birthday and the anniversary of the 1999 mass shooting at Columbine High School in the U.S., which killed 14. 

The perpetrator’s social media included posts where he performed a Nazi salute and a framed AI-generated photo of him side-by-side with the Columbine shooters was found at the scene of the attack, according to authorities. 

“The incident… highlights the growing influence of extremist online communities on acts of violence, a trend that transcends national borders,” noted Ortiz. 

Mexican Attorney-General Cervantes also described “a psychopathic profile of the attacker, characterized by a tendency to imitate situations that occurred in other places, at other times, and involving other individuals – this tendency can be referred to as copycat behaviour”.

Countdown to the games

Monday’s shooting is the latest headache for the Mexican government ahead of this summer’s soccer competition. 

A wave of cartel violence in February, including in World Cup host city Guadalajara, sparked concerns about the threat posed by organized crime in the country. 

But the government has been engaged in a push to assure visitors that the country is safe, announcing plans to mobilize 100,000 security forces this summer. It also said it will deploy an additional 2,100 military vehicles, 24 aircraft, and 33 drones.

But, as Ortiz noted, the type of violence seen in Mexico this week is “not common.” 

“There is no indication that this type of attack poses a widespread risk to tourists,” he concluded.

Featured image description: The Pyramid of the Moon in Teotihuacan – one of the largest in Mesoamerica, México.

Featured image credit: Marcelosan via WIkimedia Commons

The post Mexico boosts security after pyramid attack but plays down shooting risks appeared first on Latin America Reports.

State attorney general said inquiry will look into whether AI tool offered ‘significant advice’ to campus shooting suspect

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Florida’s top prosecutor is to launch a criminal investigation into how the tech company OpenAI and its software tool ChatGPT may influence users’ threats of harm to themselves or others, including whether it “offered significant advice” to a gunman accused of conducting a mass shooting in the state last year.

State attorney general James Uthmeier said at a news conference on Tuesday that his office is expanding an examination of OpenAI, saying a “criminal investigation is necessary” and the state had issued subpoenas to the $852bn California-based tech firm.

Two teenagers were killed and five others wounded in Winston-Salem after pre-planned fight in park

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North Carolina authorities say they are pursuing criminal charges against adults who allegedly “stood by” a scheduled fight among teenagers that led to a mass shooting that killed two people and wounded five others on Monday.

“We’re sending the message that if you stand by, encourage, aid or abet our juveniles in delinquent behavior, we will not tolerate it,” William H Penn, the Winston-Salem police chief, said in a joint video message on Tuesday alongside the local sheriff and district attorney.