Federal prosecutors released a video on Thursday showing the moment that authorities say a man armed with guns and knives tried to storm the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner on Saturday night and kill President Trump. Jeanine Pirro, the US attorney for Washington, posted the video online amid questions over whose bullet struck a Secret Service officer as Cole Tomas Allen ran through security with a long gun toward the hotel ballroom packed with journalists, administration officials, and others, per the AP.
Footage from the security checkpoint at the Washington Hilton shows about a dozen federal officers taking down magnetometers and casually standing around when the suspect emerges from a doorway and starts sprinting toward them. The video appears to show Allen quickly reaching the officers and running through a magnetometer before most of them appear to notice him; only one officer visible in the video appears to have drawn his firearm before the gunman passes; Pirro said that agent is the one who was shot and returned fire; officials note that the agent fired his gun five times.
It's not clear from the video at what moment Allen's weapon is thought to have fired; Pirro said on Thursday that there's no evidence the officer was hit by friendly fire. Allen was injured but wasn't shot during the attack. The nearly six-minute video released by Pirro also shows Allen walking back and forth down a hallway the day before the attack, as well as briefly checking out the hotel gym. Prosecutors wrote in court papers on Wednesday that Allen also took a picture of himself in his hotel room minutes before the incident, outfitted with an ammo bag, shoulder gun holster, and sheathed knife.
Secret Service chief Sean Curran defended the agency's security plan for the event, noting in a Fox News interview that the attack was stopped within seconds at the outermost perimeter of a multilayered security bubble around the president. Allen agreed Thursday to remain jailed while he awaits trial and didn't enter a plea during his appearance in federal court. The 31-year-old, a part-time tutor for a test prep company and an amateur video-game developer, was charged on Monday with the attempted assassination of the president, as well as two additional firearms counts, including discharging a weapon during a crime of violence. He faces up to life in prison if convicted of the assassination count alone.
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
