Richard Strauss thought of his son when chaos and panic erupted at the White House Correspondents Dinner amid gunshots.

In the terrifying seconds after an alleged gunman sprinted through a security checkpoint, the DC communications strategist found himself sprawled on the floor of the Washington Hilton ballroom — surrounded by panicked guests as his mind raced to the one thing that mattered most.

“It was scary. It was surreal. I thought about my son. I didn’t know what was happening,” said Strauss, a former Clinton operative who was unaware that a photographer was capturing his blank, stunned stare for a image that would land on the front pages of newspapers across the country.

One of the most chilling images of the White House Correspondents Dinner shooting incident captured a group of “petrified” guests lying on the floor.…