Cole Tomas Allen, the 31-year-old suspect in the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, reportedly had a history of acquiring weapons. Just months before he opened fire at the Washington DC dinner, purchased a Maverick 12-gauge pump-action shotgun, and an Armscor semi-automatic pistol years before that in October 2023.
According to Bloomberg, the first purchase was made from CAP Tactical Firearms in Lawndale, and the shotgun was bought in August 2025 from Turner’s Outdoorsman in Torrance.
How the suspect planned his attack
Allen’s shooting plan at the DC dinner had reportedly been in the works for months now. He had been pursuing a masters degree in computer science from California State University-Dominguez Hills and had travelled cross-country by rail.
The suspect took Amtrak from Los Angeles to Chicago and then on to Washington before checking into the Washington Hilton, where the dinner of US President Donald Trump and other White House officials had been planned.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told CBS’s Face the Nation that Allen stayed at the hotel for several days before the attack.
According to an AP report, Allen’s sister told federal agents in Maryland that her brother had legally purchased several weapons from a gun store in California and stored them at their parents’ home in Torrance, without their knowledge.
Who was on Allen’s hit list?
Cole Tomas Allen reportedly sent a to family members shortly before the shooting. Trump administration officials, prioritised from highest-ranking to lowest but excluding FBI Director Kash Patel, were on Allen’s target, a law enforcement official told Reuters.
The suspect even made fun of in the manifesto accessed by several news agencies. “Like, the one thing that I immediately noticed walking into the hotel is the sense of arrogance,” the manifesto’s author reportedly wrote. “I walk in with multiple weapons and not a single person there considers the possibility that I could be a threat.”
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Notably, a Bloomberg report earlier said that Allen had run past a security checkpoint before being caught during after the gunfire.
What did Trump say on the attack?
Donald Trump, who was also among the US officials Allen tried to target, recently broke silence on the shooting and called the suspect a “pretty sick guy” who had been flagged to law enforcement by family members.
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“He was a Christian, believer, and then he became an anti-Christian, and he had a lot of change,” Trump told CBS’ “60 Minutes” program. “He was probably a pretty sick guy.”
Amid chatter over the lax security situation at the Washington Hilton, Trump also promoted his planned White House ballroom as a safer venue. “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!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
