by Sharon Rondeau
(Apr. 27, 2026) — The suspect in Saturday night’s discharge of a firearm at the Washington, DC Hilton, where the White House Correspondents Association annual dinner was to take place, will hear the charges against him at 1:45 p.m. EDT Monday in U.S. District Court, 333 Constitution Avenue NW in the nation’s capital.
Newsweek reported the arraignment as beginning at 1:00 p.m.
Cole Tomas Allen, 31, of Torrance, CA, is charged with “using a firearm during a crime of violence and assault on a federal officer, as well as other potential counts,” Fox5 in Washington, DC and CBS News reported Monday morning following U.S. Attorney for the District of Washington, DC Jeanine Pirro’s initial public comments.
Additional charges are likely to follow, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said.
More than 2,500 guests were in attendance at Saturday evening’s event, including journalists, members of Congress, President Donald Trump and wife Melania, many cabinet secretaries and other officials, and Turning Point USA CEO Erika Kirk.
In September, Kirk’s 31-year-old husband, then-TPUSA CEO, commentator, author and podcast host Charlie Kirk, was publicly assassinated at Utah Valley University by a perpetrator possibly motivated by politics.
Saturday’s incident was viewed as a third attempt on President Trump’s life following incidents in West Palm Beach, FL and Butler, PA in 2024.
The Hilton was the scene of another presidential attack when Ronald Reagan sustained serious injury and White House Press Secretary James Brady was permanently impaired on March 30, 1981. The shots were fired by John Hinckley, who is now out of prison and released from all court-ordered monitoring.
In a “manifesto” sent to family members just before he opened fire at a hotel security checkpoint Saturday evening, Cole indicated he told his parents his absence was obfuscated by his claim of an upcoming “job interview” and that he is now among the “Most Wanted.”
Cole also admitted his current situation is “self-inflicted.”
With a 2025 master’s degree in computer science from California State University at Dominguez Hills, Allen reportedly worked as a tutor and developed video games in his spare time. One of his former professors recalled him to the Associated Press as “a very good student indeed, always sitting in the first row of my class, paying attention, and frequently emailing me with coursework questions. Soft-spoken, very polite, a good fellow.”
His employer, C2education, specializes in “Personalized Test Prep, Tutoring, and College Counseling.”
A Secret Service agent was shot and transported to the hospital following the incident but spared serious injury as a result of the bullet-proof vest he was wearing, Trump reported at an impromptu Saturday-night press conference.
As of 1:00 p.m., Fox News reports White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt will provide a briefing within two minutes.
On Friday, Leavitt announced she was to begin maternity leave, but at 1:05 p.m. Monday said from the podium she “thought it was prudent to answer your questions today” about Saturday’s attack.
“I was seated next to President Trump and the First Lady,” she said, decrying that “yet another individual was trying to take his (Trump’s life) at the time.
In the manifesto, Cole admitted to entering the hotel “with multiple weapons” “and not a single person there considers the possibility that I could be a threat.”