Trump administration officials — “likely including the president” — were the apparent targets of the shooting at the annual White House correspondents’ dinner, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said Sunday.
In an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press” the morning after President Donald Trump was rushed off stage by Secret Service agents as guests ducked under dining tables while shots rang out at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner, Blanche said of the gunman: “We believe that he was targeting administration officials.”
Blanche cautioned that the belief is “quite preliminary” as law-enforcement officials sift through evidence. The acting attorney general said investigators had recovered the suspect’s “electronic devices” and that “there were some writings, and we’ve already spoken with several witnesses who knew him.”
He did not elaborate on the writings that have been uncovered. But he said investigators believe at this point that the suspect acted alone.
Blanche said the suspect, which a former senior law enforcement official identified to MS NOW as 31-year old California resident Cole Tomas Allen, traveled by train from Los Angeles to Chicago and then from Chicago to Washington. The suspect had two firearms on him that were purchased legally in past couple of years, Blanche said.
The armed suspect was tackled near a security checkpoint at the Washington Hilton hotel, where the event has been held annually for decades, before he could enter the ballroom. He was taken into custody, hospitalized and remains under observation, according to D.C. interim Police Chief Jeff Carroll. The gunman shot a Secret Service agent in his protective vest and that agent was injured but in good condition, Trump told reporters Saturday night.
Trump, Vice President JD Vance and several top administration officials — including Blanche — were in attendance.
“Obviously, President Trump is a member of the administration, the head of it,” Blanche noted on Sunday. But he said any “exacting threat that may have been communicated beforehand” are still under investigation and not yet known.
Blanche said he expected formal charges, which he said would likely include assault of a federal officer and discharging a firearm during the assault of a federal officer, would be filed on Monday.
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