Man charged with trying to kill Trump at dinner took photo with knife in hotel, investigators say

WASHINGTON – The man charged with trying to storm the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner and is accused of trying to kill President Donald Trump took a picture of himself in his hotel room just minutes earlier, outfitted with an ammunition bag, shoulder gun holster and a sheathed knife, investigators said Wednesday in a new court filing.

Cole Allen wore black pants, a black shirt and a red tie as he snapped the image in his room at the Washington Hilton, the venue where Trump and hundreds of journalists were meeting for a gala Saturday night.

Allen, 31, of Torrance, California, was captured when he tried to race past a security barricade near the ballroom, prompting an exchange of gunfire with Secret Service agents tasked with safeguarding the event. Allen’s defender says he’s presumed innocent.

Trump, a Republican, was not hurt and was rushed off the stage by his security team.

“When you’re impactful, they go after you. When you’re not impactful, they leave you alone,” Trump, safe and uninjured and still in his tuxedo, said at the White House two hours later. “They seem to think he was a lone wolf.”

The dinner had barely begun when officials say Allen tried to race past security barricades near the cavernous ballroom holding hundreds of journalists and their guests, prompting an exchange of gunfire with Secret Service agents tasked with safeguarding the event. Allen carried with him a 12-gauge pump action shotgun he bought last year and a .38 caliber semiautomatic pistol he purchased in 2023, authorities said.