Surveillance video released by U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro shows Cole Allen casing the Washington Hilton Hotel and storming a Secret Service checkpoint during the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. President Trump was present at the event and was briefly evacuated. Allen, 31, is facing charges related to attempted assassination and firearm offenses and has waived his right to challenge his detention.
Dramatic surveillance video released Thursday shows alleged would-be assassin Cole Tomas Allen casing a hallway at the Washington Hilton Hotel on April 24, and then the next evening, storming through a Secret Service checkpoint at that hotel outside the White House Correspondents' Association dinner, where President Donald Trump was set to give a speech.
The video shows a Secret Service officer quickly pulling his handgun and firing multiple times at Allen as he sprints toward and through the checkpoint with what prosecutors have said was a 12-gauge pump-action shotgun in his hands.
The new video was posted on X by U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro, whose office is prosecuting Allen, a 31-year-old Caltech grad and tutor from Torrance, California.
Pirro said investigators have found no evidence to indicate that a Secret Service agent who was struck by gunfire during the incident was shot by another member of law enforcement, but did not elaborate on that claim. The agent was not seriously injured because the shot was stopped by protective gear, Trump has said.
The video, taken from surveillance cameras at the Hilton, traces Allen's movements on the evening of April 24 and on the night of April 25, when the WHCA dinner was being held. At the dinner were Trump, first lady Melania Trump, Vice President JD Vance, FBI Director Kash Patel, and other Trump administration officials, along with hundreds of journalists.
On April 24, Allen is seen on the video walking along a hallway that has the same carpet design seen in the footage of the shooting scene from the next night. It also shows him entering a gym adjacent to the hallway, and talking to an attendant inside, before walking out into the hallway again.
The next night, Allen is seen wearing a long coat walking down the same hallway at 8:23 pm. The video then cuts to show the Secret Service checkpoint that was set up on the floor above the ballroom to screen attendees at the dinner. The time code on the video is 8:36 p.m.
Two officers are seen beginning to take down one of two magnetometers set up at that location, as what appears to be Allen walks down the hallway and through a door off to the side, about 10 steps or so behind the magnetometer. Another officer with a dog approaches that doorway, and stands there for about 15 seconds, and then starts walking away from it.
Allen is then seen on the video bolting from the doorway with the shotgun toward and through the magnetometer that was still standing. A Secret Service officer who had been talking to two other officers on the other side of the magnetometer drew his handgun about two seconds after Allen exited the doorway and immediately fired as Allen ran by him, discharging at least three rounds.
Three other Secret Service officers are then seen on the video pulling their guns and pointing in the direction that Allen ran. He was tackled at the scene. Prosecutors have said that in addition to the shotgun, Allen was carrying a .38-caliber pistol, ammunition, and multiple knives and daggers. The shotgun had one spent shell, according to Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.
"Today, we are releasing video already provided to U.S. District Court showing Cole Allen shoot a U.S. Secret Service officer during his attempt to assassinate the President at the White House Correspondents' Dinner," Pirro wrote in her X post. "There is no evidence the shooting was the result of friendly fire. The video also shows Allen casing the area in the Hilton Hotel the day before the attack," she said. "My office along with the FBI will continue this extensive investigation to bring Cole Allen to justice."
Allen is charged with trying to assassinate Trump, transporting a firearm or ammunition in interstate commerce, and discharging a firearm during a crime of violence. Earlier Thursday, the Torrance, California, resident waived his right to challenge his detention in jail pending trial in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., although his attorney said it retained the right to challenge it in the future.
