The suspected shooter at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner allegedly used the hotel staircase to bypass security, according to a recent report.
“Senior law enforcement sources” told CBS News that “hotel surveillance footage” showed Cole Tomas Allen, 31, exiting his hotel room at the Washington Hilton Hotel with “a shotgun, a handgun and several knives packed inside a black bag.”
Allen allegedly then “used an interior stairwell” to get around “heavily monitored public areas of the hotel,” before arriving on “the same level as the foyer leading to” the red carpet for the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, according to the outlet.
The report comes after President Donald Trump, first lady Melania Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and other Cabinet officials who were attending the event were rushed out of the room after gunshots were heard during the dinner.
In video footage posted to social media, people attending the event were seen ducking underneath tables.
During a press briefing after the shooting, Trump shared that a Secret Service agent, who had been wearing a bulletproof vest, had been shot by the suspect.
“One officer was shot, but saved by the fact that he was wearing, obviously, a very good bulletproof vest,” Trump stated. “He was shot from very close distance with a very powerful gun, and the vest did the job.
Breitbart News’s Nick Gilbertson reported that Allen “had a manifesto detailing his intention to target officials in the Trump administration.” Allen was also reported to have “attended a leftist anti-Trump No Kings protest,” and “was a regular at the shooting range, and was a member of a group known as The Wide Awakes.”
