New photos show White House Correspondents' Dinner shooting suspect taking selfie with weapons before attack
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "New photos show White House Correspondents' Dinner shooting suspect taking selfie with weapons before attack")
New photos show White House Correspondents' Dinner shooting suspect taking selfie with weapons before attack Photograph: (US Department of Justice)
New images show Cole Allen armed before White House Correspondents' Dinner shooting as prosecutors detail planning and push to keep him detained
Newly released images submitted by US prosecutors show Cole Tomas Allen, the man accused of opening fire at last week’s White House Correspondents’ dinner, posing with multiple weapons inside a hotel room before the attack. The photos were included in a court memorandum filed by the US government as part of its request to keep Allen in custody pending trial. The 31-year-old has pleaded not guilty to several charges, including attempting to assassinate Donald Trump.
According to prosecutors, the images show Allen standing in front of a mirror with weapons strapped to his body, including a knife, along with a bag containing ammunition.
Allen is accused of carrying a semi-automatic handgun, a pump-action shotgun, and three knives when he forced his way past a security checkpoint at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner held at the Washington Hilton. During the incident, Trump, Vice President JD Vance, cabinet officials, and other attendees were evacuated after gunfire erupted. A Secret Service agent was shot but survived. Allen could face life in prison if convicted. The filing says that Allen took the photos around 20:03 EST, wearing formal clothing along with a shoulder holster, pliers, and wire cutters, items later recovered by authorities.
Prosecutors allege that over the next 30 minutes, Allen monitored live coverage of the event and checked whether the president was present before heading toward the ballroom. Authorities say he discarded a long black coat that had concealed a shotgun before advancing toward the security checkpoint. "Shortly thereafter, the defendant rushed the screening checkpoint on the Terrace Level of the Washington Hilton with a raised shotgun," the memo says. He then sprinted through a metal detector while holding the weapon, according to prosecutors.
The memorandum also reveals that Allen kept notes on his phone documenting observations from his cross-country journey, including "[t]he southwest desert in spring Distant wind turbines looming like snowy mountains across the hazy NM desert". Prosecutors described the attack as carefully planned and dangerous, arguing against his release. "Considering the relevant statutory factors, there is no condition or combination of conditions that will reasonably assure the safety of other people or the community if the defendant were released from custody," prosecutors say.
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Allen also faces additional charges, including transporting a firearm across state lines to commit a felony and discharging a weapon during a violent crime, each carrying up to 10 years in prison. Officials say he traveled from Torrance, California, to Washington, D.C., via Chicago in the days leading up to the attack.
According to court documents, Allen sent an email to family members before the incident stating, "Administration officials... are targets, prioritized from highest-ranking to lowest". "I would still go through most everyone here to get to the targets if it were absolutely necessary," he allegedly added.
