Cole Tomas Allen, the 31-year-old man arrested last night by the Secret Service after forcibly entering the lobby of the Washington Hilton Hotel, where President Donald Trump was with the First Lady and the top US government officials, left his residence in California by train and arrived in the capital through Chicago. More than 4,400 kilometers and countless hours of travel, instead of a direct flight in less than 300 minutes, for a very clear reason: to be able to carry a shotgun, a pistol, several knives, and enough ammunition to cause a massacre.
In addition to the weapons and the intention, he had with him, according to sources from the investigation, a "manifesto," a series of papers and writings in which he showed his anger towards the president and the administration, according to The New York Post, which cites security sources who have read it. "I am no longer willing to allow a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to stain my hands with his crimes," the sensationalist newspaper literally quotes, which advances that the man proclaims himself the "Friendly Federal Killer."
"To minimize casualties, I will use pellets instead of bullets (they have less penetration in walls)," he wrote before admitting, the article says, that he was willing to kill everyone present if that meant reaching his targets. "Still, I would go over almost everyone present to reach the targets if absolutely necessary (since most people *chose* to attend a speech by a pedophile, rapist, and traitor, and therefore are complicit), but I really hope it doesn't come to that extreme," the quote continues.
Throughout the pages, which he sent to his family before attempting to enter the Hilton hotel, Allen reflects on moral and religious matters, wondering how to reconcile his ideas with his Christian faith. And he makes explicit references to the president's more aggressive policies. "Turning the other cheek is for when one is oppressed. I am not the person raped in a detention camp. I am not the fisherman executed without trial," he relates to the boats sunk by the US military in the Caribbean or to the many complaints of immigrants detained throughout the country.
"I am not a school child victim of an explosion, nor a child dying of hunger, nor a teenager abused by the many criminals of this administration. Turning the other cheek when another person is oppressed is not Christian behavior; it is complicity in the crimes of the oppressor," cites the Post.
The investigation is progressing very quickly
Twelve hours after agents shot and subdued Allen, who managed to bring his arsenal into the perimeter of the place where the White House Correspondents' Association gala dinner was being held, there are still many doubts and questions. About possible security failures, but also about the exact reasons to explain his actions and intentions. That said, this morning, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, temporarily replacing the dismissed Pam Bondi, explained on television that everything indicates that the detainee "probably targeted people working in the administration, including the president."
Blanche explained that Allen is not "cooperating" but that investigators had managed to obtain some information from the suspect's electronic devices, from the search of his home in California, and from "interviews with several people who know him," which is starting to shed some light. "We continue to try to clarify the motive. According to our preliminary investigation, it appears that the suspect targeted members of the administration. We do not yet have details about specific members of the administration, except that we know that was his objective," he added.
Hours later, the president himself confirmed in a chat with Fox News that Allen left "a manifesto," allegedly with "anti-Trump and anti-Christian rhetoric." The president thus confirmed what various media outlets had reported, citing sources from the investigation that had anticipated the existence of a series of undefined writings, allegedly found in his hotel room or sent to some family members in the hours before. "The guy is sick, you can see it when you read his manifesto. He hates Christians. That's for sure. Even his brothers complained," added the president.
According to CNN, Allen self-identifies in those pages as the "Friendly Federal Killer" and makes it clear that he intended to attack government officials but specifically indicated that he did not target law enforcement.
"I expected security cameras on every corner, hotel rooms with hidden microphones, armed agents every three meters, metal detectors everywhere. What I found (who knows, maybe I'm being pranked!) is nothing. Not a damn bit of security. Not in transportation. Not in the hotel. Not at the event (...) It's crazy, any Iranian agent could have brought in a heavy machine gun and no one would have noticed," he wrote in those pages. "I enter with multiple weapons and not a single person there considers the possibility that I could be a threat. Security at the event is all outside, focused on the protesters and those arriving, because apparently no one thought about what happens if someone checks in the day before," Allen concludes his reflection in the text.
According to Fox News, Allen's brother had alerted the police in New London, Connecticut, upon receiving his email. Likewise, the Secret Service and the Montgomery County Police interviewed Avriana Allen, the detainee's sister, at her residence in Maryland, very close to Washington DC, and she reportedly explained that her brother "tended to make radical statements and his rhetoric constantly referred to a plan to 'do something' to fix the problems of the current world."
The sister confirmed that Allen had purchased the weapons used in recent years, that he regularly went to a shooting range to train, and that he was part of a group called 'The Wide Awakes,' a reference to an anti-slavery group from the Civil War era.
The Acting Attorney General also confirmed an important detail to explain how he managed to get so close to the president and the top executives: he was a guest at the Hilton hotel, which allowed him to arrive "a day or two before" at the facilities. Surprisingly, the security perimeter around the place where the dinner was held only required passing through metal detectors to enter the ballroom where there were about 2,000 guests. But to reach the red carpet just a meter away from the most important ministers, or to enter private parties, it was enough to show a simple paper ticket or a screenshot of the same.
In fact, a witness indicated that she saw the suspect preparing the weapons in a poorly guarded room before running to reach where the president and vice president were. "He was immediately subdued and, yes, he managed to fire a couple of times," said Blanche, adding that the president spoke with the Secret Service agent who was shot in the chest while wearing a bulletproof vest and has already been discharged.
Security protocols require that in situations like last night's, federal agencies check the names of those staying at the hotel, but Allen had no criminal record and was not on anyone's radar, so no alarm was raised. Secret Service Deputy Director Matthew Quinn stated that the attacker was attempting to carry out a "national tragedy" while all eyes were on the White House Correspondents' dinner.
FBI investigations seem to suggest, as Trump himself said in an impromptu press conference at the White House shortly after being evacuated, that Allen "acted alone." He was a "lone wolf" and not part of something larger. And that the weapons he had on him had been legally purchased "in the two or three years prior," according to Blanche.