Preliminary investigation suggests shooting suspect targeted Trump officials, acting AG says
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said Sunday that the man who opened fire Saturday night at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner was likely targeting members of the Trump administration – the first official indication of a possible motive in an attack that has rocked Washington.
In an interview on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Mr. Blanche stressed that the investigation is in its early stages and that the suspect is refusing to cooperate.
“We believe, based on a very preliminary understanding of what happened, that he was targeting members of the administration,” Mr. Blanche said. “We don’t have details beyond that kind of general statement from what we’ve learned so far, but we’re actively talking with witnesses who knew him, and we’re talking with other people and reviewing the documents we’ve collected.”
“So I hope you hear more about this in the coming days,” he said.
The suspect – identified as Cole Tomas Allen, 31, of Torrance, California – is expected to be formally charged Monday morning in federal district court. He faces at least two charges: using a firearm during a violent crime and assaulting a federal officer with a dangerous weapon.
Mr. Blanche said more charges could follow as investigators piece together what happened.
“There are a lot of federal charges that could be in play beyond these two charges, but it depends on our understanding of his motive, his intent, his premeditation,” he said.
Mr. Blanche said Mr. Allen had traveled by train from Los Angeles to Chicago and then to Washington in the days before the shooting. He was staying at the Hilton Hotel in Washington, where the White House Correspondents’ Dinner was being held.
Mr. Blanche said the suspect was “apprehended and subdued within steps” of the security perimeter breach – before he could reach the president or anyone inside the ballroom.
A Secret Service agent was shot and killed during the confrontation. However, he was wearing a bulletproof vest and has since been released from the hospital.
Mr. Blanche said President Trump spoke with the agent Saturday evening and found him to be “in very good spirits.”
“It’s a tragedy averted, and it’s because he was wearing a bulletproof vest,” Mr. Blanche said.
He sidestepped repeated questions about whether the attack appeared to show that travelers can transport guns across state lines by train without the declarations required to travel by plane.
“Look, this is not, in my opinion, about changing the law or making the laws more restrictive regarding gun ownership,” Mr. Blanche said. “This is about law enforcement doing their job and a suspect who tried to do something and failed miserably.”
He also said the Trump administration had no plans to scale back public appearances, rejecting the notion that having the president, vice president, House speaker and multiple cabinet secretaries in the same room created an unacceptable security risk.
“If his goal was to scare us, he failed,” Mr. Blanche said.
