(AFP) – Investigators on Sunday said the gunman who tried to storm a gala dinner attended by Donald Trump planned to assassinate the US president and multiple top officials, as scrutiny grew over the event’s security. Trump, who was rushed out of the hotel ballroom in Washington by Secret Service agents, posted surveillance footage of the gunman attempting to sprint past a checkpoint.
After a brief exchange of gunfire with agents, the suspect was detained at the scene on Saturday evening and was being questioned before he is due to appear in court Monday. Trump shared photos of the suspect handcuffed on the carpeted hotel floor. “He’s not actively cooperating. I expect that he will be formally charged tomorrow morning in federal court in Washington,” acting US Attorney General Todd Blanche told CBS’s “Face The Nation.” “We do believe, based upon just a very preliminary start to understanding what happened, that he was targeting members of the administration.”
Blanche added that no further motive was known for the attack and confirmed the suspect — who officials said was armed with a shotgun, handgun, and knives — was staying at the Washington Hilton hotel where the black-tie dinner was held. “We believe that he traveled by train from Los Angeles to Chicago, and then from Chicago to Washington,” Blanche said. “It appears he purchased these firearms in the past couple of years.”
Guests hid under tables as Trump, without providing details, said the gunman had written an “anti-Christian” manifesto. “The guy is a sick guy,” Trump told Fox News. “His sister or his brother actually was complaining about it. They were even complaining to law enforcement.” The New York Post said the suspect, widely named as Cole Allen, 31, had written in a note shared with his family shortly before the attack that his targets would be “prioritized from highest-ranking to lowest.”
In the seconds after the shooting a floor above, Secret Service agents swarmed into the ballroom, prompting chaotic scenes as attendees dove under tables. Crowded into the ballroom were Trump, First Lady Melania Trump, Vice President JD Vance, several cabinet members and top lawmakers, and hundreds of guests in black tie. Trump said at a hastily arranged late-night news conference at the White House that he first thought the noise was a tray being dropped, before realizing it was gunfire.
He said he hoped the annual gala, hosted by the White House Correspondents Association, would be rescheduled within a month. “They seem to think he was a lone wolf, and I feel that too,” the president said. One officer was shot at close range in his safety vest and appeared to be not seriously harmed. Trump added that the hotel venue was “not a particularly secure” facility, as questions swirled about the president’s safety protocols.
Trump was the target of an assassination attempt during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in 2024. A gunman fired several shots, killing an audience member and lightly wounding the president in the ear. A few months later, another man was arrested after a Secret Service agent saw the barrel of a rifle poking from the bushes on the perimeter of the West Palm Beach golf course where Trump was playing a round.
The Washington Hilton, where Saturday’s gala was taking place, is the site where Republican President Ronald Reagan was shot by a would-be assassin in 1981. “This keeps happening,” Brian Raftery, an attorney, told AFP in Washington on Sunday. “One of these times, unfortunately, something very bad is going to happen if we continue to have these types of attacks on political leaders.”
Trump on Sunday said the shooting underlined the security reasons that he has cited for planning a huge new ballroom next to the White House, a project that has faced legal challenges. The White House Correspondents’ Association invited Trump to its gala this year despite his repeated attacks on the media. Before this year and unlike all other presidents from the past 100 years, Trump had never attended while in office.
The dinner brings together journalists and the who’s who of Washington to raise funds for scholarships and awards. The incident came less than 48 hours before King Charles III and Queen Camilla begin a four-day state visit to Washington. – Ben SHEPPARD and Daniel STUBLEN
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