New images show suspect taking selfies before Washington press dinner shooting

Key developments are emerging from the global stage. New images show suspect taking selfies before Washington press dinner shooting 14 hours ago Share Save Add as preferred on Google Madeline Halpert Watch: 'Are they gunshots? ' correspondent's minute-by-minute account of dinner shooting New images included in a memorandum filed by the US government show Cole Tomas Allen - the man accused of opening fire at a White House Correspondents' dinner last weekend - with weapons in a hotel room before the attack. Prosecutors submitted the photos along with new details of the suspect's activities before the 25 April incident in their motion to keep Allen detained pending trial.

The 31-year-old has pleaded not guilty to several charges, including attempting to assassinate President Donald Trump. Prosecutors say the photos show Allen in his hotel room posing in front of a mirror with several weapons strapped to his body, including a sheathed knife, and a bag with ammunition. Department of Justice Allen is accused of carrying a semi-automatic handgun, a pump-action shotgun and three knives as he charged past a security checkpoint at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner on Saturday.

The Details

During Saturday night's incident, Trump, Vice-President JD Vance, cabinet members, and other White House officials were rushed from the Washington Hilton hotel ballroom after gunfire rang out. A Secret Service agent was shot but not seriously wounded during the attack at the hotel. Allen faces life in prison if found guilty.

In the new memorandum, prosecutors say Allen took photos of himself in his hotel room with his cell phone at around 20:03 EST (1:03 BST) wearing dress clothes as well as a shoulder holster, pliers and wire cutters that they say were later recovered from Allen. The government alleges that for the next half hour, Allen checked several websites for live coverage of the White House Correspondents' dinner, and for the president's attendance. He then made his way downstairs and towards the ballroom, where the dinner was taking place.

Prosecutors allege Allen discarded a long black coat that had concealed a pump-action shotgun. "Shortly thereafter, the defendant rushed the screening checkpoint on the Terrace Level of the Washington Hilton with a raised shotgun," the memo states. He sprinted through a metal detector, holding the shotgun with both hands in a raised position, the government says.

The new filing also alleges that Allen kept a note on his phone of observations of his surroundings as he traveled from his home in California across the country to Washington, including "he southwest desert in spring Distant wind turbines looming like snowy mountains across the hazy NM desert". Prosecutors argue in the filing that Allen should remain detained before his trial, calling his alleged actions "premeditated, violent, and calculated to cause death".

The development has drawn wide international attention, with diplomatic circles watching closely.