Details emerge of alleged shooter at White House correspondents' dinner

Politics Details emerge of alleged shooter at White House correspondents' dinner Updated April 26, 202612:54 PM ET Originally published April 26, 202611:20 AM ET By Danielle Kurtzleben , Ryan Lucas Agents stand guard after the shooting at the annual White House Correspondents Association Dinner on Saturday. Andrew Harnik/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Andrew Harnik/Getty Images Hours after a gunman attempted to breach the White House Correspondents' Dinner, details are slowly emerging about who he is. The alleged gunman has been identified as Cole Allen, according to two sources familiar with the matter. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. He is believed to have been targeting administration officials, as acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told NBC's Meet the Press Sunday morning. The incident brought America's commonplace gun violence just feet away from a room full of lawmakers, top officials, and journalists. It also may add to a string of troubling political violence in the U.S. that includes two assassination attempts on President Trump. It also injects more chaos into what was already a turbulent time for the Trump administration, which is attempting to negotiate an end to the war in Iran that the U.S. started at the end of February. Sponsor Message The latest information Allen had written what a White House source characterized Sunday morning as a "manifesto," and Allen's brother notified the New London, Conn., police of that writing just minutes before the incident at the dinner. Allen's sister spoke to Secret Service and Montgomery County, Md., police, saying her brother "had a tendency to make radical statements and his rhetoric constantly referenced a plan to do 'something' to fix the issues with today's world," according to the White House source, who was not authorized to speak publicly. She also confirmed that Allen had purchased two handguns and a shotgun, storing them in their parents' home without their parents' knowledge. Speaking to Fox News on Sunday morning, Trump said the quick response from the Secret Service and law enforcement is evidence that Democrats should vote to fund the Department of Homeland Security. A partisan stalemate on Capitol Hill means the DHS has been shut down for nearly two months. "These were strong, solid people who got to get paid," Trump said. "You know, this is a group that is not being paid. The Democrats are holding up their pay." That shutdown began after immigration officers shot and killed two U.S. citizens in January. As a result, Democrats refused to fund DHS as part of regular appropriations, pushing for new restrictions on how immigration enforcement officials conduct themselves. Sponsor Message What happened Saturday night Just minutes into the dinner, attendees in the ballroom heard muffled popping noises and saw the president, first lady, and top officials hurried away from the head table, where journalists representing the White House Correspondents Association were also seated. Other attendees throughout the room, including lawmakers, Cabinet officials, and hundreds of journalists, fell to the floor as they awaited an all-clear from law enforcement. Law enforcement later revealed that the alleged gunman was apprehended right outside the ballroom, after he attempted to charge past a security checkpoint. Amid the confusion after the incident, White House Correspondents Association President Weijia Jang…

This excerpt is published under fair use for community discussion. Read the full article at NPR Topics: News.