Prosecutors say new images and activity logs show Cole Tomas Allen preparing before the Washington dinner shooting as they seek to keep him jailed before trial.
Federal prosecutors have submitted new images they say show Cole Tomas Allen posing with weapons in a Washington hotel room shortly before the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ dinner, as they ask a court to keep him in custody while he awaits trial.
Allen, 31, has pleaded not guilty to several charges, including attempting to assassinate President Donald Trump. The government filing, described in a BBC report, was submitted as part of prosecutors’ motion to detain him pending trial after the 25 April incident at the Washington Hilton.
Prosecutors say the photos were taken on Allen’s cellphone at about 20:03 EST and show him in dress clothes with a shoulder holster, a sheathed knife and a bag containing ammunition. The filing also says pliers and wire cutters visible in the images were later recovered from him.
The government alleges Allen then spent roughly half an hour checking websites for live coverage of the dinner and Trump’s attendance before heading toward the ballroom. Prosecutors say he discarded a long black coat that had concealed a pump-action shotgun and then rushed a security screening point on the hotel’s Terrace Level.
“Shortly thereafter, the defendant rushed the screening checkpoint on the Terrace Level of the Washington Hilton with a raised shotgun,” the memo states, according to the report. Prosecutors say Allen sprinted through a metal detector holding the shotgun with both hands.
Trump, Vice-President JD Vance, cabinet members and other White House officials were rushed from the ballroom after gunfire rang out. A Secret Service agent was shot but not seriously wounded.
The filing also alleges Allen had traveled from Torrance, in the Los Angeles area, to Washington after leaving home on 21 April, taking a train to Chicago before continuing to the capital. Prosecutors say a note on his phone included observations from the cross-country trip. An affidavit cited in the report also alleges Allen sent an email to his family shortly before the attack saying administration officials were targets, prioritized by rank.
Prosecutors called the alleged conduct “premeditated, violent, and calculated to cause death,” and argued that no release conditions would reasonably protect the public if Allen were freed before trial.
Allen faces life in prison if convicted of the attempted assassination charge. He also faces charges of transporting a firearm between states to commit a felony and discharging a firearm in a crime of violence, each carrying a maximum sentence of 10 years.
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