Overview
- Cole Tomas Allen was arrested by the Secret Service outside the White House Correspondents’ Dinner and prosecutors charged him with using a firearm during a violent crime and assaulting a federal officer with a dangerous weapon.
- Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said Allen carried a shotgun, a handgun, and multiple knives and was subdued only feet from breaching the security perimeter.
- Investigators are reviewing messages sent minutes before the attack that used the phrase “Friendly Federal Assassin” and denounced Trump administration actions, which they say could point to a political motive.
- A 2017 ABC7 Los Angeles video now circulating shows Allen as a Caltech student explaining a wheelchair emergency brake meant to stop a chair from moving at all.
- SFGATE reports Allen is expected to make his first appearance in federal court on Monday after traveling from California to Washington, D.C., with a stop in Chicago and checking into the event hotel.