WHCA dinner: Prosecutors release video of armed attack
Federal prosecutors released a video showing the moment authorities say a man armed with guns and knives tried to storm the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) dinner and attempt to kill President Donald Trump.
Jeanine Pirro, the US attorney for Washington, posted the video on social media on Thursday amid questions over whose bullet struck a Secret Service officer as Cole Tomas Allen ran through security with a long gun toward the hotel ballroom packed with journalists, administration officials and others.
Prosecutors had previously claimed the agent was shot in the bullet-resistant vest during the melee, but had not confirmed it was Allen who shot the agent. Pirro, however, said Thursday that there is no evidence that the officer was hit by friendly fire.
The video appears to show Allen run through a magnetometer and point his weapon at the agent, who fired back five times, according to authorities.
It’s not clear from the video at what moment Allen’s weapon fires. Allen was injured but was not shot during the Saturday night attack at the Washington Hilton, which disrupted one of the highest-profile annual events in the nation’s Capital. Allen agreed earlier Thursday to remain jailed while he awaits trial. He did not enter a plea during his brief appearance in federal court.
Secret Service Director Sean Curran defended the agency’s security plan for the event and said he would not change it. He said in a Fox News interview that the attack was stopped within seconds at the outermost perimeter of a multi-layered security bubble around the president. The distance from the magnetometers to the podium where Trump was seated was 355 feet, with two sets of stairs, a doorway and many more armed Secret Service officers in between, he said. “The site was set up perfectly,” Curran said.
The nearly six-minute video released by Pirro shows Allen walking back and forth down a hallway the day before the attack, and briefly checking out the hotel gym.
Footage from the security checkpoint shows about a dozen federal officers taking down magnetometers and casually standing around when the gunman emerges from a doorway and starts sprinting toward them.
The gunman quickly reaches the officers before most of them appear to notice him. Only one officer visible in the video appears to have drawn his gun before the gunman passed; Pirro said he’s the one who was shot and returned fire.
In court papers pressing for Allen’s continued detention, prosecutors wrote Wednesday that Allen took a picture of himself in his hotel room just minutes before the incident, and that he was outfitted with an ammunition bag, a shoulder gun holster and a sheathed knife.
In a message that authorities say sheds light on his motive, Allen referred to himself as a “Friendly Federal Assassin” and alluded obliquely to grievances over a range of Trump administration actions.
