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The WHCD Shooter Used the Hotel Against the Secret Service — Here’s How

By Mike Harper · April 27, 2026

He booked a room. He took the stairs. He walked out at exactly the right moment — and he was apparently as surprised as anyone that it worked.

Cole Tomas Allen, 31, is set to be arraigned in federal court in Washington today on charges stemming from Saturday night’s shooting outside the White House Correspondents’ Dinner at the Washington Hilton. But as investigators continue piecing together how a part-time teacher from Torrance, California carried a shotgun, a handgun, and multiple knives into a hotel hosting the President of the United States, the details that have emerged describe not a sophisticated operation but a series of security gaps that Allen himself documented in real time — and that he fully expected to encounter.

In writings reviewed by CBS News, Allen described his shock at what he found when he arrived: “I expected security cameras at every bend, bugged hotel rooms, armed agents every 10 feet, metal detectors out the wazoo. What I got…is nothing.” He also wrote, “apparently no one thought about what happens if someone checks in the day before.”

That is exactly what he did. Allen checked into the Washington Hilton on Friday, April 25 — one full day before the dinner — as an ordinary paying guest. Law enforcement sources told CBS News he traveled by train from Los Angeles to Chicago, then from Chicago to Washington, and checked into a room on the 10th floor. His luggage was not searched. His name was not checked against any list beyond the hotel’s own reservation system.

Fox News reporter Bill Melugin, who attended the dinner, posted on social media that when he arrived, no one checked his name against a list, asked for ID, patted him down, or sent him through a metal detector at the entrance. Only at the point of entry to the main ballroom itself did security tighten to include magnetometers and pat-downs.

Allen used the hotel’s layout against that system. Surveillance footage reviewed by senior law enforcement officials showed him leaving his 10th floor room dressed in black, carrying a bag containing the shotgun, handgun, and knives. He took an interior stairwell — bypassing the hotel’s more heavily monitored areas — directly down to the terrace level, where he exited onto the same floor as the foyer leading to the dinner’s red carpet.

The timing made it worse. Allen emerged at the exact moment Secret Service agents were dismantling the metal detectors at the outer security checkpoint. Once the president was seated in the ballroom, no more attendees were being admitted — so agents were taking the equipment down. Surveillance footage released by Trump on social media shows Allen running past agents mid-teardown.

Secret Service Director Sean Curran defended the response, saying the multilayered security plan “did work” because Allen was stopped before reaching the ballroom. A Secret Service officer who was struck by Allen’s shotgun blast was protected by his vest and has since been released from the hospital.

Allen was apprehended at the scene. He is being charged with using a firearm during a crime of violence and assault on a federal officer, with additional charges expected as the investigation develops. U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro described him as someone who was “intent on doing as much harm and as much damage as he could.”

The arraignment today in federal court will mark the first formal legal proceeding in a case that has already prompted Buckingham Palace to reassess security arrangements for King Charles III’s state visit to Washington, which begins today.