Federal investigators have confirmed that Cole Tomas Allen — the 31-year-old suspect charged with attempting to assassinate President Donald Trump — fired the shot that struck a Secret Service agent at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner last month, ruling out earlier speculation that the agent may have been hit by friendly fire.
US Attorney Jeanine Pirro made the determination public on Sunday, describing ballistic evidence that tied the wound directly to Allen’s shotgun. “It is definitively his bullet. He hit that Secret Service agent. He had every intention to kill him and anyone who got in his way, on his way to killing the president of the United States,” Pirro said. She added that a pellet from the suspect’s shotgun was “intertwined with the fiber” of the agent’s protective vest — physical evidence that closes off any alternative explanation for how the officer was wounded.
“This was a premeditated, violent act, calculated to take down the president, and anyone who was in the line of fire,” Pirro said.
The confirmation opens the door to additional charges against Allen beyond the three already filed — attempting to assassinate Trump, transporting a firearm across state lines with intent to commit a felony, and discharging a firearm during a crime of violence. A conviction on the assassination attempt charge alone carries a potential sentence of life in prison.
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The reconstruction of Allen’s movements, as described by Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche last week, reveals a methodical approach to the attack. Allen traveled by train from his home near Los Angeles to Chicago and then to Washington, arriving in the capital on April 24 — the day before the April 25 dinner at the Washington Hilton. He checked into the hotel. The following evening, as Trump sat in the ballroom one floor below, Allen approached a security checkpoint on the terrace level carrying a shotgun, a semiautomatic pistol and three knives.
“He ran through the magnetometer holding a long gun. As he did so, US Secret Service personnel assigned to the checkpoint heard a loud gunshot,” Blanche said. The agent struck in the chest was wearing a ballistic vest that absorbed the impact. That officer, despite being shot, fired five rounds at Allen. Allen was not struck but fell to the ground and was arrested immediately.
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The attack is being characterized as the third assassination attempt against Trump since 2024, and its political reverberations have been substantial. The White House has accused Democratic opponents of fostering the conditions for political violence through sustained verbal attacks on the administration. Critics have pushed back, noting that Trump himself has a documented history of personal attacks against political rivals and accusing the administration of exploiting the shooting to justify regulatory pressure on media figures — including the FCC investigation into ABC and late-night host Jimmy Kimmel that followed Melania Trump’s public statement connecting a pre-dinner joke to the attack.
Sunday’s ballistic confirmation transforms what had been a partially uncertain account of the shooting’s mechanics into a legally precise one. Allen shot a federal agent. The evidence is in the vest. The charges will follow the evidence.