On Saturday, April 25, 2026, a man, now identified as 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen, armed with various weapons, broke into the Washington Hilton hotel. At the time, a Correspondents’ Association Dinner was being held, with important administrative officials including Vice President J.D. Vance and President Donald Trump present
According to AP News, the break-in occurred shortly after the dinner began. This gathering had been planned for months, with gala events scheduled to come soon after it. As a result, the rooms were flooded with guests and journalists alike. Allen ran through numerous security barricades before the Secret Service started firing shots.
Allen had multiple different weapons on him, and in turn, began shooting. He was not hit by any of the gunfire, but one of the agents was. Luckily, the agent was wearing a bulletproof vest which protected him from getting critically hurt. Allen was quickly taken into custody, escorted away, and given various different charges, although none of them related to shooting the agent. It is not clear whether his shot was the one that wounded the agent, but the bullets are currently being analyzed to figure out who struck the agent. This evidence could either help or worsen Allen’s fate, as the count for shooting a federal agent could lengthen his punishment.
Allen lives in California, and made his way to D.C. via train a week prior to the event. He is a tutor and specializes in amateur video game creation—a seemingly normal life. He graduated from CalTech in 2017, with a degree in computer science and has pursued various different professions.
Newsweek reports that he sent an email to his family before the event. The emails starts out by apologizing for lying to his family, colleagues, and students, before going on to apologize to anyone he came into contact with during the trip, and anyone he unintentionally put in danger. He also listed out everyone who was a target and was not, and then went on to explain why. The guests were not targets, while Hotel Security, and Capitol Police were if they shot first. The administrative officials were all deemed targets, with the exception of the FBI Director, Kash Patel.
A psychiatrist analyzed his email, saying that he seemed internally convinced of what he was about to do. Dr. Sanam Hafeez mentions that in his email, he is apologetic to many people for unintentionally harming them, yet is fully aware of his plan to kill someone. She says that this sort of thinking shows that this wasn’t a spontaneous plan, and might be something he has been preparing for.
Some people find it interesting that this attempted assassination took place at the same hotel that President Ronald Reagan was shot at 45 years ago. Many conspiracy theories have emerged saying that Trump planned this attempt in order to gain more attention or further his own agenda. People have noted that this is the third time he has been unsuccessfully assassinated, leading some to believe it’s all a stunt, says The Hill.
Allen is now in federal custody awaiting trial. He has a possible life sentence awaiting him, but at this time is presumed innocent.
