The man accused of trying to storm the ballroom at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner with guns and knives had written about targeting Trump administration officials, President Donald Trump has said.
The accused gunman’s family had alerted police in Connecticut, Trump said, revealing new details about a chaotic encounter that disrupted one of Washington’s glitziest annual events.
The suspect, identified by law enforcement officials as 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen of Torrance, California, was expected to face criminal charges on Monday from the Justice Department.
Acting head Todd Blanche said the suspect travelled by train from California and checked in as a guest days earlier at the Washington hotel where the Saturday night gala dinner was held with its typically tight security.
Law enforcement officials who have interviewed Allen’s relatives and examined his electronic devices and writings believe he intended to target administration members in attendance at the dinner.
He attempted to charge into the cavernous ballroom at the Washington Hilton but was tackled to the ground in a violent scene that resulted in shots being fired, Mr Trump being hurried off the stage and guests ducking for cover beneath their tables.
“It does appear that he did in fact set out to target folks who work in the administration, likely including the president,” Mr Blanche told NBC’s Meet The Press.
The suspect is believed to have purchased the two firearms he carried within the last couple of years, Mr Blanche said. He is not being cooperative and is expected to face multiple charges on Monday.
Video posted by Mr Trump showed the suspect running past security barricades as Secret Service agents ran toward him. One officer was shot in a bullet-resistant vest but was recovering, officials said. The gunman was taken into custody and was not injured, but was being evaluated at a hospital, police said.
Authorities believe the suspect fired the shot that hit the Secret Service officer, who is expected to make a full recovery, Mr Blanche said.
“He’s going to be great, he’s going to be fine, and thank God he was wearing a bulletproof vest,” Mr Blanche said.
Social media posts that appear to match the suspect show he is a highly educated tutor and amateur video game developer.
A May 2025 profile photo of Allen appears to match the appearance of the man in a photo of the alleged attacker being taken into custody that was posted on Saturday night by Mr Trump.
The photo, posted to the social networking site LinkedIn, shows him in a cap and gown after graduating with a master’s degree in computer science from California State University, Dominguez Hills.
Allen earned a bachelor’s degree in 2017 in mechanical engineering from the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. He listed his involvement there in a Christian student fellowship and a campus group that battled with Nerf guns.
The shooting at the security barricades happened minutes after the event got under way.
The Secret Service and other authorities swarmed the room as guests ducked under tables by the hundreds. Gasps echoed through the ballroom as guests realised something was happening. Hundreds of journalists immediately got on phones to call in information.
Mr Trump was unusually conciliatory after what he saw as a third attempt on his life in less than two years. He suggested that his personal politics had made him a repeated target but he also called for unity and bipartisan healing in an increasingly violent world.
“It’s always shocking when something like this happens. Happened to me, a little bit. And that never changes,” Mr Trump told reporters in a hastily organised news conference at the White House late on Saturday.