The 31-year-old California school teacher, Cole Allen, the suspect in the White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooting, revealed in his “manifesto” that the government figures he aimed to target, while describing himself as a “Friendly Federal Assassin”. The 1,052-word missive obtained by The New York Post was sent by Allen to his family.
Allen starts his letter by apologising to everyone, including his family, friends and colleagues, before mocking the “insane” lack of security at the Washington Hilton, where the dinner was held.
"Like, the one thing that I immediately noticed walking into the hotel is the sense of arrogance," Allen wrote. "I walk in with multiple weapons and not a single person there considers the possibility that I could be a threat.”
"Turning the other cheek when *someone else* is oppressed is not Christian behavior; it is complicity in the oppressor's crimes," the manifesto read. “On to why I did any of this: I am a citizen of the United States of America. What my representatives do reflects on me.”
He then goes on to criticise President Trump, without mentioning him by name. "I am a citizen of the United States of America. And I am no longer willing to permit a paedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes," it said.
He also goes over his expected “rules of engagement.”
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“Administration officials (not including Mr Patel): they are targets, prioritised from highest-ranking to lowest,” he writes, adding that Secret Service “are targets only if necessary, and to be incapacitated non-lethally if possible”. He said hotel security is not a target if at all possible.”
He also writes down objections and rebuttals. “As a half-black, half-white person, you shouldn’t be the one doing this”, to which his rebuttal is: “I don’t see anyone else picking up the slack”.
After the shooting, Allen’s brother contacts the New London Police Department in Connecticut regarding his alleged manifesto. His sister, Avriana Allen, later told Secret Service and Montgomery County Police that her brother had a history of making radical statements and previously mentioned a plan to do "something" to fix what he believed to be issues with today’s society.
