Alleged WHCA dinner gunman traveled by train from Los Angeles to DC: Blanche
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said Sunday that the alleged gunman who exchanged shots with law enforcement at the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) dinner on Saturday traveled across the country via train from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C.
Blanche told host Dana Bash on CNN’s “State of the Union” that the man traveled from Los Angeles to Chicago, and then from Chicago to the nation’s capital. He then checked in on Thursday to the Washington Hilton hotel, where Saturday night’s dinner took place.
Multiple outlets identified 31-year-old Cole Allen, from Torrance, Calif., as the alleged gunman . The Hill has not independently verified the individual’s identity.
President Trump shared a photo after the incident to his Truth Social platform of the accused gunman in which he appears shirtless and laying on the ground with his arms behind his back.
Allen struck one officer, who was “saved” by a bulletproof vest, according to Trump. The accused shooter was armed with a shotgun, a handgun and multiple knives, interim Metropolitan Police Department Chief Jeffery Carroll told reporters Saturday.
Blanche told Bash that FBI agents “worked through the night” along with state and local law enforcement, including in Los Angeles. The acting attorney general said that investigators executed search warrants on devices that they believe belong to the suspect.
Blanche noted that while investigators are “still looking to try to understand a motive” from the preliminary investigation, it “does appear the suspect was targeting” members of the Trump administration.
“We don’t have specifics yet about particular members of the administration, except that we do understand that that was his goal and his target,” he added.
Blanche said that investigators have begun talking to individuals who knew the suspect, but the alleged gunman is not “cooperating” with law enforcement.
U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro told reporters Saturday that the suspect will be arraigned on Monday on two charges — using a firearm during a crime of violence and assault on a federal officer using a dangerous weapon.
As for whether the alleged gunman will face additional charges, Blanche said that depends on investigators “understanding his motive, his premeditation [and] what he wanted to do.”
The acting attorney general added, “That requires us to go through the evidence and develop a case, which the FBI is working on now.”
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