The California man who allegedly opened fire at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday evening is facing at least three criminal charges, including the attempted assassination of President Trump.
Cole Tomas Allen, 31, allegedly charged at a Secret Service checkpoint with multiple weapons, firing shots — one of which hit a Secret Service member in his bullet proof vest — before he was tackled and taken into custody during the dinner at the Washington Hilton on Saturday evening.
President Trump, First Lady Melania Trump, and numerous key administration officials — as well as some 2,600 other politicians, celebrities, and journalists — were in attendance at the dinner when Allen turned up at the security checkpoint armed with a shotgun, handgun, and knives.
In addition to the attempted assassination charge, Allen also faces charges of transporting and discharging a firearm, prosecutors said at his arraignment on Monday afternoon in Washington, D.C.
Allen apparently sent a manifesto to family members moments before his attempted attack, writing, “I am no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes. . . . I’m not the person raped in a detention camp. I’m not the fisherman executed without trial. I’m not a schoolkid blown up or a child starved or a teenage girl abused by the many criminals in this administration.”
He also described his “expected rules of engagement,” writing: “Administration officials (not including Mr. Patel): they are targets, prioritized from highest-ranking to lowest.” He appeared to be referring to FBI Director Kash Patel.
Later, he added: “I experience rage thinking about everything this administration has done.”
