Investigators recovered a buckshot pellet from the bulletproof vest of a Secret Service agent who was shot at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro said. The pellet ties the suspect, Cole Tomas Allen, 31, of Torrance, Calif., to the incident, Pirro told CNN.
“We now can establish that a pellet that came from the buckshot from the defendant’s Mossberg pump-action shotgun was intertwined with the fiber of the vest of the Secret Service officer,” Pirro said on State of the Union. “It is definitively his bullet.”
Allen allegedly ran through a security checkpoint at the Washington Hilton on April 25, where the dinner was underway, and fired a shotgun at the agent. He has been charged with attempted assassination, discharging a firearm during a crime of violence and illegally transporting guns and ammunition across state lines.
“He hit at that Secret Service agent. He had every intention to kill him and anyone who got in his way on his way to killing the president of the United States,” Pirro said, adding that evidence points to President Trump as Allen’s target. Pirro cited what she described as Allen’s tracking of the president’s movements and timing on his phone, including questions like, “Is the president in the ballroom yet? Has the president sat down yet?”
Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche told NBC’s Meet the Press that Allen could face additional charges and that an indictment is likely as the investigation continues. An attorney for Allen did not immediately respond to requests for comment.