- Cole Tomas Allen, 31, from Torrance, California, faces federal charges including two gun crimes and attempting to assassinate the president of the United States after the White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooting on Saturday.
- A seven-page federal affidavit detailing the accusations against him was unsealed Monday afternoon and it included an email Allen allegedly sent to family members, warning them of his intentions and listing administration officials as targets, with Secret Service personnel as targets only if necessary.
- The email began, “Hello everybody! So I may have given a lot of people a surprise today. Let me start off by apologizing to everyone whose trust I abused. I apologize to my parents for saying I had an interview without specifying it was for ‘Most Wanted.’” The email mentioned one Trump official by name while listing Allen’s alleged targets. “Administration officials (not including Mr. Patel): they are targets, prioritized from highest-ranking to lowest,” the email read.
- Allen checked into the Washington Hilton a day before the dinner. With the dinner scheduled to begin at 8 p.m. ET, Allen rushed through a security checkpoint carrying a long gun at 8:40 p.m. ET, according to the federal affidavit.
- A Secret Service officer, identified by the initials V.G., was shot once in the chest, with the bullet striking their protective vest, though the affidavit does not explicitly state Allen fired the shot. The officer returned fire at Allen but missed him. Allen fell to the ground and was taken to Howard University Hospital for minor injuries after his capture before being released to law enforcement custody.
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