Surveillance photos show at least eight Secret Service and security officers reacting as Cole Tomas Allen rushed a checkpoint outside the White House Correspondents' Association dinner ballroom at the Washington Hilton on April 25, with one agent drawing his weapon and opening fire as Allen charged forward holding a shotgun with both hands raised.
Secret Service Director Sean Curran has since confirmed that the 31-year-old Allen fired first, striking an agent in his bulletproof vest, and that the agent returned fire with five shots, none of which hit the suspect.
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The photos show agents scrambling in the seconds after Allen burst through a doorway and sprinted toward the checkpoint, where President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and senior cabinet officials were gathered in the ballroom below.
"The agent did not shoot himself," U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro said at a press conference Thursday, pushing back on speculation about the source of the injury.
Surveillance footage did not clearly capture a muzzle flash from Allen's shotgun, a question that acting Attorney General Todd Blanche had declined to answer earlier in the week.
"We're still looking at that," Blanche said when asked about who fired the shot that struck the agent. Director Curran's confirmation settled it.
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The agent, who has not been publicly identified, was struck once in his protective vest and taken to a hospital, where he was treated and released. Allen was not struck by gunfire despite the agent firing five rounds at close range. He fell near a staircase leading to the ballroom and was taken into custody, according to charging documents.
Newly filed court documents also show Allen spent time before the attack photographing himself in his hotel room with multiple weapons and monitoring live coverage of the event to confirm the president's attendance, prosecutors say. According to an affidavit, he sent an email to his family shortly before the attack stating that administration officials were "targets, prioritized from highest-ranking to lowest," and signed it with a moniker describing himself as a "friendly federal assassin."
"Shortly thereafter, the defendant rushed the screening checkpoint on the Terrace Level of the Washington Hilton with a raised shotgun," the government's filing states.
Allen had traveled by train from Torrance, California, arriving in Washington four days after leaving home. Prosecutors argue the cross-country planning, the hotel reconnaissance, and the targeted email to his family together demonstrate a calculated attempt to reach the president at one of Washington's most secured annual events.
Allen carried a Mossberg Maverick 88 pump-action shotgun loaded with buckshot, a deliberate choice over slugs, prosecutors say, intended to limit overpenetration while still inflicting lethal harm on those in the room.
He faces a potential life sentence on the most serious charge of attempting to assassinate the president, along with additional federal charges of transporting firearms across state lines and discharging a firearm during a crime of violence, each carrying a maximum of 10 years, the BBC report linked above states.
Editor’s Note: The American people overwhelmingly support President Trump’s law and order agenda.
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