Washington (United States) (AFP) – Investigators have found clear evidence that the alleged gunman who attempted to storm a Washington media gala attended by US President Donald Trump actually shot a Secret Service officer, a federal prosecutor said Sunday.
Questions had lingered over whose weapon had struck the officer in his protective vest on the night of the April 25 gala, after at least one Secret Service agent also opened fire. Jeanine Pirro, the US prosecutor in Washington, told CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday that investigators could now definitely say it was gunfire from the man charged with the attack, Cole Allen.
“We now can establish that a pellet that came from the buckshot from the defendant’s Mossberg pump-action shotgun was intertwined with the fiber of the vest of the Secret Service officer,” Pirro said. Allen, who was tackled and arrested by security forces almost immediately after charging through a security checkpoint with multiple weapons, has not entered a plea.
“It is definitively his bullet; he hit that Secret Service agent. He was — had every intention to kill him and anyone who got in his way — on his way — to killing the president of the United States,” Pirro added.
Investigators have released some security camera footage of Allen walking around the Washington hotel, as well as one angle of the incident — which took place on the floor above the gala. In that footage, the man identified as Allen sprints through a security checkpoint and raises a firearm towards a Secret Service officer, who fires several times at the assailant as he runs off screen.
There is not an apparent muzzle flash from the shotgun during the short clip, which does not show the area where Allen was detained. Pirro told CNN that more video would be made public at a future date, including of the events that occur after Allen runs off frame.
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