FBI Director Vows ‘Quick Turnaround’ in DC Shooting Case

A White House official told The Epoch Times on Sunday that the suspect arrested in the incident was identified as Cole Allen of California.

President Donald Trump listens as FBI Director Kash Patel speaks during a press briefing at the White House shortly after a shooting incident at the White House Correspondents' Dinner, in Washington on April 25, 2026. Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

FBI Director Kash Patel on April 27 said federal officials will soon release more details about the suspect in the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner shooting over the weekend.

There will be “a pretty quick turnaround, if not maybe the fastest for something of this magnitude,” Patel told Fox News on Monday morning.

“We’re going to be able to present to the world in less than 36 hours almost, exactly what happened. This individual’s entire background, entire background, who he knew, where he lived, who he was talking to, everything about the firearms, everything about the ballistics.”

A White House official told The Epoch Times on April 26 that the suspect arrested in the incident was identified as Cole Allen of Torrance, California. The official and President Donald Trump have said he allegedly wrote and sent a manifesto to members of his family and suggested he was motivated by an anti-Trump as well as an anti-Christian animus.

“The criminal complaint that’s being presented. I just can’t get ahead of my partners, the Department of Justice, and especially can’t get ahead of the federal magistrate that it’s being presented to,“ Patel told Fox News. ”But we have answered all those questions, and that’s what we’ve been working towards.”

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press” that Allen allegedly wanted to target Trump or members of his administration before he was stopped by security officials at the event, which was held at the Washington Hilton hotel. Allen is likely to make his initial court appearance on Monday, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro said in a post on X on Saturday night.

Pirro wrote Sunday that Allen allegedly was intending to do “as much harm as he could,” adding that law enforcement acted “quickly to prevent what could have been a horrific event.”

Other than Trump, Vice President JD Vance and senior Cabinet officials such as Department of War Secretary Pete Hegseth, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and others were in attendance at the annual dinner event.

Trump told reporters at a briefing at the White House after the attack that the Secret Service agent was saved by his bulletproof vest and was in “good shape.” Secret Service spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi confirmed the officer had ​been released from the hospital.

Federal agents react after shots were fired at the hotel where the annual White House Correspondents Association Dinner was held in Washington on April 25, 2026. Nathan Howard/Getty Images

In July 2024, ​Trump was shot and wounded in his upper ear by a 20-year-old Thomas Crooks, who was quickly shot dead by a Secret Service counter-sniper team, in Butler, Pennsylvania, during a campaign rally. The incident prompted questions about the security detail around Trump, ultimately leading to the resignation of then-Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle.

In September of that year, Ryan Routh, 60, was found by Secret Service personnel near Trump’s Florida golf course armed with a rifle before he was captured hours later. In February 2026, he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole on multiple federal charges, including attempting to assassinate a presidential candidate.

President Ronald Reagan (C) waves just before he is shot outside a Washington hotel on March 30, 1981. Public Domain

The Washington venue for the dinner was the scene of an attempt on the life of then-President Ronald Reagan, who was shot and wounded by a would-be assassin outside the hotel in 1981.

Reuters contributed to this report.