May 3 (UPI) — A Secret Service agent shot during an incident at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner was hit by a pellet from a shotgun fired by accused assailant Cole Allen, a U.S. prosecutor said Sunday.
An initial investigation of the violence at last week’s Washington D.C. event failed to confirm who had fired the shot that was stopped by the agent’s bulletproof vest, leading to speculation the agent could have been hit by friendly fire as a heavily armed Allen tried to barge into a hotel ballroom during an alleged assassination attempt against President Donald Trump and Cabinet members.
But U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro claimed Sunday further analysis has revealed the agent was indeed struck by a projectile fired from a weapon allegedly carried by Allen.
“We have been able to determine which gun it was,” she told CNN’s State of the Union. “First of all, there is video of the defendant shooting at the Secret Service agent. There is also the agent who will tell you himself that he was shot at and then he returned the fire.”
But more importantly, Pirro said investigators have now established that “a pellet that came from the buckshot from the defendant’s Mossberg pump-action shotgun was intertwined with the fiber of the vest of the Secret Service officer.
“It is definitively his bullet,” she said. “He hit at that Secret Service agent.”
Allen, 31, of Torrance, Calif., allegedly fired shots outside of the Washington Hilton ballroom during the correspondents’ dinner on April 25. He was arrested after a Secret Service officer fired at him. Allen was not hit but had minor injuries.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said last week the agent was shot in the chest but survived because they were wearing a bulletproof vest.
Allen has been charged with attempting to assassinate Trump as well as with the discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence.
Meanwhile on Sunday, newly filed court documents indicated the alleged assailant has been removed from “suicide watch” while incarcerated at the District of Columbia Jail.
Allen’s public defender, who had earlier filed a motion seeking to lift suicide precautions placed on the alleged shooter, withdrew the request on Sunday after noting the measures had already been removed.
The attorney said the conditions under which Allen were being held were inhumane and amounted to a violation of his human rights.
He was not being allowed to make phone calls to or receive visits from anyone outside of his legal team, have access to a jail tablet, or to spend any time outside of his cell, the initial motion claimed.
The heavy restrictions were placed on Allen despite no suicide risk factors being noted by his Department of Corrections intake team, the lawyers wrote.
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