The gunman suspected of opening fire at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner looked worlds away from an alleged criminal in a newly resurfaced video of him helping the elderly.
Cole Allen, 31, was arrested on Saturday night after he entered the Washington Hilton hotel armed with two guns and knives while around 2,600 politicians and journalists gathered in the dining room for the lavish event.
President Donald Trump and Melania took to the stage with other members of his cabinet just moments before shots rang out and chaos unfolded.
Allen was soon tackled and arrested by Secret Service agents, one of whom was struck in his bulletproof vest. He is expected to recover and no one else was harmed.
Nearly a decade ago, Allen’s name was in the news, but in a much more positive light as he showed off an invention that would help senior citizens feel more secure in their wheelchairs.
Allen proudly spoke to ABC 7 News in March 2017, displaying his invention, an emergency brake he created out of PCV pipes, during an ‘Aging into the Future’ conference in Los Angeles.
The event was run by St. Barnabas Senior Services and the Eisner Foundation and offered people the chance to test out their products that would help enrich an elderly person’s life.
‘The wheelchair brakes tend to lock the wheels, but don’t lock the chair to the ground,’ Allen, a then student at The California Institute of Technology (Cal Tech), told the outlet.
Cole Allen, the 31-year-old suspected gunman accused of opening fire inside the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday night, in a resurfaced clip from 2017
He was tackled to the ground and placed in handcuffs after charging past a security checkpoint inside the hotel
‘But with this device, that will prevent the chair from skidding at all,’ he added.
He also posed in a picture with other young innovators at the convention.
Allen was seen in chilling surveillance footage taken from inside the hotel, wearing all black with a gun in his hand.
The clip, shared by Trump on Truth Social shortly after the incident, saw security guards standing in the hallway until Allen charged by the checkpoint.
The guards immediately drew their weapons and darted after him before tackling him to the floor and placing him in handcuffs.
The dinner, an annual black-tie gala that brings politicians and journalists together, was barely underway when the Secret Service was forced to leap into action after a series of shots rang out around 8.15pm.
Several agents rushed on stage to secure the president and other high-level personnel before others jumped into the crowd and ushered cabinet members to safety.
Allen is facing charges of two counts of using a firearm during a crime of violence and assault on a federal officer using a dangerous weapon.
Allen proudly spoke to ABC 7 News in March 2017, displaying his invention, an emergency brake he created out of PCV pipes
Allen (far left) also posed in a picture with other young innovators at the convention
He is expected to be arraigned in federal court on Monday.
If convicted, Allen could face 20 years in jail for the assault, while the weapons charges come with a minimum of ten years, with a possibility of life behind bars.
Since the shooting, Allen’s eerie manifesto has been revealed, and showed that he is not a fan of Trump.
In the manifesto, which he sent to his family just 10 minutes before he opened fire, Allen referred to himself as the ‘Friendly Federal Assassin.’
According to the New York Post, Allen’s manifesto read: ‘Turning the other cheek is for when you yourself are oppressed. I’m not the person raped in a detention camp. I’m not the fisherman executed without trial.
‘I’m not a schoolkid blown up or a child starved or a teenage girl abused by the many criminals in this administration. Turning the other cheek when *someone else* is oppressed is not Christian behavior; it is complicity in the oppressor’s crimes.
Around 2,600 politicians and journalists attended the yearly event. Many of them ducked under tables after hearing shots ring out
First Lady Melania Trump is seen stunned just moments before she and the president were rushed out of the room following gunshots
‘In order to minimize casualties, I will also be using buckshot rather than slugs (less penetration through walls).
‘I would still go through most everyone here to get to the targets if it were absolutely necessary (on the basis that most people *chose* to attend a speech by a pedophile, rapist, and traitor, and are thus complicit) but I really hope it doesn’t come to that.’
His targets included ‘administration officials (not including [FBI Director Kash] Patel): they are targets, prioritized from highest-ranking to lowest.’
Allen wrote, allegedly referencing the president: ‘I am no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes.’
