Cole Allen, the man suspected of opening fire at the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) dinner in Washington, D.C., Saturday night (April 25), apparently wrote a manifesto referencing his Christian beliefs and his disgust for “the many criminals in this [presidential] administration.”
Allen, 31, was charged today (April 27) with attempting to assassinate the president, among other crimes. A detention hearing is scheduled for April 30. President Donald Trump described the suspect as “a Christian believer [who] then became anti-Christian.”
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Allen, a mechanical engineering graduate and teacher, was acting alone and targeting administration officials, according to authorities. They said he had booked a hotel room at the Washington Hilton, where he raced past security Saturday night before shooting one Secret Service agent, who sustained minor injuries.
White House Correspondents’ Association Shooting Suspect: My Leaders’ Actions ‘Reflect on Me’
Shortly before Saturday’s attack, accused gunman Cole Allen sent his family a manifesto signed “Cole ‘coldForce’ ‘Friendly Federal Assassin’ Allen.” According to the document, Allen felt a righteous duty to act against leaders with whom he disagreed. “What my representatives do reflects on me” as a U.S. citizen, the manifesto read. “And I am no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes.”
Allen described his “rules of engagement,” saying he wanted to target “administration officials” but not other guests. By using buckshot, he wrote, he aimed to “minimize casualties.”
In his “rebuttals to objections” about the attack, Allen addressed whether he should “turn the other cheek” as a Christian. He wrote, in part:
Turning the other cheek is for when you yourself are oppressed…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.
“No one is required to yield” to lawmakers who “do not follow the law” themselves, Allen added. He apologized to his parents and thanked “my family, both personal and church” for their love. “I don’t expect forgiveness,” the manifesto stated, “but if I could have seen any other way to get this close, I would have taken it.”
As for how it feels to be in his position, Allen noted, “It’s awful. I want to throw up; I want to cry for all the things I wanted to do and never will, for all the people whose trust this betrays; I experience rage thinking about everything this administration has done.”
Allen, whose voter record lists no party affiliation, reportedly belonged to a “Christian Fellowship” group in college. Previous tutoring clients described him as smart, “normal and friendly.”
Cole Allen, the man suspected of opening fire at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, apparently wrote a manifesto referencing his Christian beliefs.Click to Post
