The suspect involved in a shooting Saturday night at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner sent a “manifesto” to his family just minutes before attempting to storm into the event with several firearms, a White House official told NOTUS.
Cole Tomas Allen, a 31-year-old California resident identified by authorities as the man arrested at the Washington Hilton following a shooting that involved federal law enforcement agents near a security checkpoint, was looking to target high-profile members of the administration, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said Sunday morning.
“I don‘t want to go beyond that, because we don‘t have specifics yet about particular members of the administration, except that we do understand that that was his goal and his target,” Blanche said during an interview on CNN. He stressed that the evidence was preliminary and that the investigation remains ongoing.
Officials with the Secret Service and local police were given an insight into Allen’s state of mind following an interview with his sister shortly after the shooting, said the White House official, who was granted anonymity to speak freely. The sister told agents that he had a history of making radical statements and that he repeatedly spoke of doing “something” to fix the issues he saw plaguing the world.
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Allen also posted “a ton of anti-Trump and anti-Christian rhetoric” on his social media accounts, according to the White House.
Authorities said he traveled by train from Los Angeles to Washington. He checked into the Washington Hilton, where the event was taking place, several days prior, D.C.'s interim Police Chief Jeffery Carroll said at a news conference Saturday night.
Officials said the 31-year-old was armed with a shotgun, a handgun and several knives when he ran through a metal detector and engaged with agents operating the security checkpoint. It remains unclear whether he personally fired any shots. He was apprehended shortly after.
Photos shared by President DonaId Trump show a handcuffed man, identified as Allen, lying shirtless and face-down in a carpeted hallway while surrounded by federal agents. It does not appear that the suspect was struck in the crossfire.
During an impromptu White House news conference shortly after the incident, Trump revealed that one Secret Service agent was injured when a bullet struck their bulletproof vest, though the president said he had spoken with the officer and they were doing “great.” Authorities on Sunday morning said the agent had been released from the hospital.
Allen is not cooperating with the investigation, and what little information investigators have gleaned comes from his “writings” and evidence obtained through “other means,” Blanche told CNN host Dana Bash.
“We‘ve already started talking to folks who knew him. We‘ve already started going through the evidence,” Blanche said. “It’s been 12 hours, so this is not something that is over — it‘s just starting.”
He was allegedly a member of a group called “The Wide Awakes” and had recently attended a “No Kings” protest in California, the White House told NOTUS.
The suspect is likely to be charged in federal court Monday on a number of counts, including the use of a firearm during a violent crime and assault on a federal officer with a dangerous weapon, the U.S. attorney for D.C., Jeanine Pirro, said.
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