New video shows alleged gunman firing outside correspondents’ dinner

Surveillance footage has given the sharpest view yet of the frantic seconds outside the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, showing 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen moving through security at the Washington Hilton and then firing as the event unfolded with President Donald Trump set to speak.

The video, reviewed after the April 25 shooting, helps reconstruct how Allen allegedly got from the hotel approach to the checkpoint outside one of Washington’s most closely watched political dinners. It also shows the scale of the security response that followed: Trump was evacuated when gunfire was heard, one Secret Service agent was shot but not seriously injured, and no injuries were reported among attendees.

Allen, of California, was charged on April 27 by the Justice Department with attempted assassination of the president, interstate transportation of a firearm and ammunition with intent to commit a felony, and discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence. Prosecutors filed new video evidence on April 30, and the FBI said the footage shows Allen engaging with security at the dinner and casing the Hilton the day before. CNBC reported that Allen allegedly scouted the Washington Hilton on April 24 and stormed a Secret Service checkpoint the next night.

Authorities say Allen left behind a written manifesto targeting Trump administration officials, and U.S. officials believed Trump and other officials in his administration were likely targets. CBS News reported that Allen bought the firearms used in the attack in 2023 and 2025, while ABC News reported that he booked a room at the Washington Hilton for April 24 to 26 and later traveled by train from the West Coast to Washington.

The attack landed at a symbolically loaded venue. The correspondents’ dinner is an annual black-tie event that celebrates press freedom and the First Amendment, and the Washington Hilton is also remembered as the site where President Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981. Trump accepted the White House Correspondents’ Association invitation on March 2.

What remains unresolved is how Allen was able to move so close to a high-profile political gathering before the shooting, and how much the released footage will settle in a case where defense attorneys have already questioned the evidence. Jeanine Pirro has said the video shows Allen firing at a Secret Service officer, but her posts on X have gone beyond what prosecutors have laid out in court filings, underscoring the dispute that now surrounds both the sequence of events and the broader security breakdown.