(The Center Square) – The California man accused of storming security at Saturday night’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner and shooting a Secret Service officer before being detained, likely was targeting Trump administration officials, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said Sunday.
President Donald Trump, First Lady Melania Trump, and members of Trump’s cabinet were at the event and were rushed out of the banquet hall of the Washington, D.C. Hilton.
“It does appear that he did in fact set out to target folks who work in the administration, likely including the president,” Blanche said on NBC’s Meet the Press. “But I want to wait and not get ahead of us on that.”
A long gun and shell casings were recovered at the scene.
No one else but the Secret Service agent, who Trump said he spoke to and was doing OK, was injured in the attack.
The New York Post reported Sunday that it received a copy of a “manifesto” the suspect, Cole Tomas Allen of Torrance, California, sent to family members just minutes before the attack.
“Administration officials (not including Mr. [FBI Director Kash] Patel): they are targets, prioritized from highest-ranking to lowest,” the Post reported the manifesto read.
Allen, media outlets reported, was a tutor and amateur video game developer. He attended the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, where he graduated in 2017. He donated $25 to the campaign of then presidential candidate Kamala Harris through ActBlue.
According to the Post, Allen’s manifesto said he wanted to minimize casualties at the hotel but, “I would still go through most everyone here to get to the targets if it were absolutely necessary (on the basis that most *chose* to attend a speech by a pedophile, rapist and traitor, and are thus complicit) but I really hope it doesn’t come to that.”
Speaking to Fox News on Sunday, Trump said the manifesto shows the suspect was a sick guy.
“The guy is a sick guy,” Trump told Fox News. “When you read his manifesto, he hates Christians. That’s one thing for sure. He hates Christians, a hatred. And I think his sister or his brother actually was complaining about it. You know, they were even complaining to law enforcement. So he was, he was a very troubled guy.”
The Center Square’s White House Bureau Chief Sarah Roderick-Fitch was in attendance at the event and said she heard a loud noise before attendees started screaming. Secret Service agents then stormed the room and began escorting people out, Roderick-Fitch said.
Federal law enforcement officers searched the suspect’s California home and interviewed members of his family. The investigation is ongoing.
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