Investigators have confirmed that the Secret Service agent wounded at last month's White House correspondents' dinner was shot by the suspect accused of attempting to kill President Donald Trump, US Attorney Jeanine Pirro announced Sunday.
"It is definitively his bullet," Pirro told CNN. "He hit at 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."
The finding resolves earlier uncertainty about how the agent was injured. Officials had initially declined to say whether the wound came from the suspect's gun or from return fire by other officers. Pirro said a pellet from the suspect's shotgun was "intertwined with the fiber" of the agent's protective vest. The agent was wearing a ballistic vest and survived.
The suspect, Cole Tomas Allen, 31, was arrested at the Washington Hilton hotel on April 25 after rushing a security checkpoint on the hotel terrace, one level above the ballroom where Trump was seated. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said Allen ran through a magnetometer holding a long gun, firing at least once. A Secret Service officer who was struck by the shot fired five times at Allen, who was not hit and was taken into custody.
Allen was carrying a shotgun, a semiautomatic pistol, and three knives at the time of his arrest, according to officials.
Blanche said Allen had traveled by train from near Los Angeles to Chicago, then on to Washington. He arrived in the capital on April 24, the day before the dinner, and checked into the hotel.
The Justice Department last week announced three charges against Allen: 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 carries a potential sentence of life in prison.
Pirro said Sunday's determination that Allen fired the shot that hit the agent could lead to additional charges. "This was a premeditated, violent act, calculated to take down the president, and anyone who was in the line of fire," she said.
The incident is being described as the third assassination attempt against Trump since 2024. The White House has accused Democratic rivals of the president of contributing to a climate of political violence through their public statements, a claim Democrats have rejected.
