The man arrested after shots were fired inside the hotel where the White House Correspondents’ Dinner was being held on Saturday night has been named by law enforcement officials as Cole Tomas Allen.
The 31-year-old suspect, who described himself as a mechanical engineer, game developer and teacher, is from Torrance in the Los Angeles region of California.
Police said Allen exchanged fire with security agents on a level of the Washington Hilton hotel that was one floor above the room in which Trump had gathered with members of his cabinet and journalists.
After he was detained, Allen told officials he wanted to shoot officials in the Trump administration, two sources told CBS, the BBC’s US news partner.
US media are reporting a history of anti-Trump social media posts from 31-year-old Allen, citing law enforcement sources.
The BBC’s partner CBS News has seen a written document believed to be linked to the suspect. Other US media have reported on the same document.
The document said the gunman wanted to target members of the Trump administration “from highest-ranking to lowest”, and that while guests and hotel staff were not the intended targets, they would be attacked if necessary to get to the officials.
BBC News has not independently verified the alleged writings, which have been described as a manifesto and were reportedly sent to the suspect’s family members before the attempted attack.
On Sunday, Trump told Fox News that the suspect “had a lot of hatred in his heart for a while”, and said his family knew he had “difficulties”. He, too, suggested the suspect had a manifesto, and suggested the man was “strongly anti-Christian”.
Trump later told CBS’s 60 Minutes programme that the suspect “was a Christian – believer, and then he became an anti-Christian, and he had a lotta change”.
Source: BBC
