Gunman at DC gala believed to be targeting US officials

THE armed suspect who tried to enter a Washington ballroom where President Donald Trump was speaking was likely targeting administration officials, Acting Attorney-General Todd Blanche said on Sunday (Apr 26).

He said on NBC News’ Meet the Press that the man is believed to have acted alone after travelling by train from California and had been staying at the Washington Hilton, which was hosting the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner where Trump was scheduled to speak.

Based on investigations so far, “we believe the suspect was targeting administration officials”, Blanche said, citing certain writings by the suspect and interviews with people who knew him.

Blanche declined to be drawn on whether Trump was the target, saying only that he was part of the administration. 

It remains unclear what the suspect’s motives were, Blanche said, adding that he did not see a connection to any particular administration policy directive so far.

The man had acquired his weapons – a shotgun and a semi-automatic pistol – over the past three years, according to a law enforcement intelligence profile reviewed by Bloomberg.

“We will not stop doing things like we did last night in this administration,” Blanche said on CBS’ Face the Nation. “And this man, if one of his goals was to get us to be scared, he failed.”

The alleged gunman, identified as Cole Tomas Allen, 31, of Torrance, California, will be charged on Monday with assaulting a federal officer and using a firearm in an assault, Blanche said on NBC.

He said on CBS that more charges would be possible depending on the shooter’s motive and the evidence gathered during the investigation that is under way.

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A Secret Service agent was shot, but the round hit his bulletproof vest and the officer “will be fine”, Jeanine Pirro, the US attorney for the District of Columbia, said on Saturday night at a news conference. 

The gunfire disrupted Trump’s first appearance as president at the annual dinner, which his predecessors routinely attended. Secret Service officers rushed into the room to evacuate Trump, First Lady Melania Trump, Vice-President JD Vance and Cabinet officials.

Attendees ducked under tables to take shelter. The incident took place just outside the ballroom of the Washington Hilton where the dinner took place. 

Trump on Sunday said the shooting was a reminder of why he is trying to build a massive new ballroom at the White House. 

“This event would never have happened with the Militarily Top Secret Ballroom currently under construction at the White House. It cannot be built fast enough!” he wrote in a social media post.

He also compared the security of his planned ballroom to that of the hotel which hosted Saturday’s event. “There are no rooms sitting on top for unsecured people to pour in, and is inside the gates of the most secure building in the world,” he added. 

Blanche, asked on CNN’s State of the Union whether the incident was a breakdown of security, rejected that notion. “It was a massive security success story,” he said. “This suspect barely breached the perimeter.”

The shooting marked the latest example of political violence that has plagued the nation, including the Jan 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol and the Pennsylvania governor’s mansion being set ablaze. Trump has been the subject of prior assassination attempts, including at a Pennsylvania rally in 2024, in which his ear was grazed by a bullet. 

“The way we respond to those threats is not to go into a bunker and hide,” Blanche said on CBS. “It’s to trust the law enforcement that are keeping us safe, and that’s what happened last night and that’s what I think we will continue to see going forward.”

The motive of the attacker was unclear, but he is believed to be a “lone wolf”, Trump said at Saturday night’s news conference. BLOOMBERG