Saturday night was meant to be a landmark evening. After a decade-long absence, US President Donald Trump was finally returning to the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner. Trump himself later admitted he had been preparing to be particularly sharp with the media.
Then the shots were fired.
The president, the first lady, and the vice president were moved to safety by Secret Service officials, along with other members of the cabinet. The shooter, Cole Tomas Allen, 31, had arrived at the Washington Hilton carrying three weapons, namely two handguns and a shotgun. He also had a plan, and he had written it all down.
In a manifesto sent to family members roughly ten minutes before he opened fire, Allen laid out exactly who he intended to target. According to a New York Post report, the list worked its way down from the most senior Trump administration officials. But one name was absent.
“Administration officials (not including [FBI Director Kash] Patel): they are targets, prioritised from highest-ranking to lowest,” Allen wrote.
The reason why Allen chose to exclude FBI Director Kash Patel from his list has not been made clear.
The manifesto also included Allen’s justification for the attack.
“Turning the other cheek is for when you yourself are oppressed. 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. Turning the other cheek when someone else is oppressed is not Christian behaviour; it is complicity in the oppressor’s crimes,” he wrote.
Allen also explained his plan, including the type of ammunition he had chosen and why.
“In order to minimise casualties, I will also be using buckshot rather than slugs (less penetration through walls). I would still go through most everyone here to get to the targets if it were absolutely necessary (on the basis that most people chose to attend a speech by a paedophile, rapist, and traitor, and are thus complicit), but I really hope it doesn’t come to that,” he wrote.
Allen was taken into custody after police said he ran through a security checkpoint and exchanged gunfire with authorities inside the Washington Hilton. Jeanine Pirro, the US attorney for the District of Columbia, confirmed he would face federal firearm and assault charges and was expected to appear in federal court for arraignment on Monday. She added that further charges remained possible, though she did not name the suspect directly.