Cole Tomas Allen was taken into custody after the shooting on Saturday night.

19:33, Mon, Apr 27, 2026 Updated: 20:51, Mon, Apr 27, 2026

Cole Tomas Allen charged

Suspected White House Correspondents' Dinner shooter Cole Tomas Allen (Image: FACEBOOK)

The man who authorities say tried to storm the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner with guns and knives has been charged with the attempted assassination of President Donald Trump. He appeared in court Monday to face charges in a chaotic encounter that resulted in shots being fired, Trump being rushed off the stage and guests ducking for cover underneath their tables.

Cole Tomas Allen was taken into custody after the shooting on Saturday night and was charged in federal court in Washington. Authorities say an officer wearing a bullet-resistant vest was shot in the vest but is expected to recover. Besides being charged with attempting to assassinate the Republican president, Allen also faces two firearms charges. He did not enter a plea. A judge granted a prosecutor’s request on Monday to keep Allen, 31, of Torrance, California, detained pending additional hearings. One of Allen’s lawyers, Tezira Abe, asked for a detention hearing and noted Allen has no criminal record.

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US President Donald Trump (Image: Getty)

“He also is presumed innocent at this time,” she said.

Allen is believed to have traveled by train from California to Chicago and then onto Washington, where he checked himself in as a guest at the hotel where the gala dinner was held with its typically tight security, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said.

“It does appear that he did in fact set out to target folks who work in the administration, likely including the president,” Blanche told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday.

Video posted by Trump shows a man, who authorities say was armed with guns and knives, running past a security barricade as Secret Service agents run toward him.

Records show Allen is a highly educated tutor and amateur video game developer.

A social media profile for a man with the same name and a photo that appears to match that of the suspect show he worked part-time for the last six years at a company that offers admissions counseling and test preparation services to aspiring college students.