Correspondents' dinner attacker detained with multiple weapons

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(The Center Square) - A California man charged security with multiple weapons at a magnetometer screening area outside the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday night before he shot one Secret Service agent at close range in the vest and then was apprehended.

A long gun and shell casings were recovered at the scene.

President Donald Trump, First Lady Melania Trump, and members of Trump's cabinet were at the event and were deemed safe. Trump said that he spoke to the agent and he was OK.

“The vest did the job,” Trump said at a press conference on Saturday night, referring to a bullet proof vest the agent was wearing.

Trump posted video of the attacker rushing the security area as well as photos of him in custody on social media.

Trump said that he believed the shooter, identified by multiple media outlets as Cole Tomas Allen of Torrance, California, was a "lone wolf" and that he is in a "dangerous profession" but that he wouldn't allow the assassination attempts to stop him from doing his job.

Allen, media outlets reported, was a tutor and amateur video game developer. He attended the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, where he graduated in 2017. He donated $50 to the campaign of then presidential candidate Kamala Harris through ActBlue. 

The event took place in the Washington, D.C. Hilton, less than 2 miles from the White House. The Hilton was also the place where John Hinckley Jr. shot President Ronald Reagan on March 30, 1981.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said Sunday morning that Allen likely was targeting Trump administration officials, including the president himself, but the investigation was ongoing.

“It does appear that he did in fact set out to target folks who work in the administration, likely including the president,” Blanche said on NBC’s “Meet the Press. "But I want to wait and not get ahead of us on that."

Trump said Saturday night that the Hilton was “not a particularly secure building” and that future dinners would be held in the new White House ballroom.

The Center Square's White House Bureau Chief Sarah Roderick-Fitch was in attendance at the event and said she heard a loud noise before attendees started screaming. Secret Service agents then stormed the room and began escorting people out, Roderick-Fitch said.

Blanche said that charges would be filed against the attacker. Trump said that the attacker’s California apartment was being investigated.

Trump said that the event would hopefully be rescheduled within 30 days.