Magistrate Judge Matthew Sherbaugh on Thursday ordered Allen detained pending a detention hearing. The suspect, who appeared on a criminal complaint rather than an indictment, was not asked to enter a plea. He is facing three federal counts: attempted assassination of the President, transportation of a firearm in interstate commerce, and discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence.
According to a WIRED review of public databases, Allen, 31, is a Caltech-trained mechanical engineer who recently received a master’s degree in computer science from California State University, Dominguez Hills, who tutored part-time at a Torrance test-prep company while also creating indie video games, with a minimal online presence.
The Metropolitan Police Department claims the suspect arrived at a Secret Service checkpoint at the Hilton on Saturday night armed with a shotgun, a handgun and several knives. Agents stopped the suspect before he could reach the ballroom, where President Donald Trump was preparing to speak.
Witnesses reported hearing several gunshots outside the room, and agents immediately removed Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance from the stage. One agent was shot but remained safe because of his bulletproof vest. Trump later told reporters that the agent was not harmed.
MPD Interim Chief Jeffrey Carroll described the suspect as a “lone actor” and said that following his arrest he was taken to the hospital for evaluation.
According to the New York Post, about 10 minutes before the shooting, the suspect reportedly emailed a “manifesto” to his family, citing two US officials and a copy of the document. In it, the author says he is “no longer willing to allow a pedophile, rapist and traitor to behead me for his crimes” – a post that has been read as a reference to Trump.
The author reportedly said that he planned to use buckshot instead of slugs to “minimize casualties”, but “if absolutely necessary he would pass through most of the people present here to reach the target,” arguing that guests who chose to attend were “complicit.” The document also mocks Hilton Hotel security: “I walk in with multiple weapons and not a single person there considers the possibility that I might be a threat.”
Within hours of the attack, Trump and a group of administration officials, GOP lawmakers and right-wing influencers seized on the shooting and demanded that the $400 million, 90,000-square-foot White House ballroom Trump is building on the demolished East Wing be scuttled by a lawsuit from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which argues he bypassed Congress.
“This event would never have happened with the Military Top Secret Ballroom under construction at the White House,” Trump posted on Truth Social Sunday morning.
The White House Correspondents’ Association, which hosts the dinner, is not a White House organization — it is an independent nonprofit of journalists that covers the administration — and there is no indication it would agree to hold the event, billed as a celebration of press freedom inside the executive mansion.
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