BREAKING: WHCD shooting suspect Cole Allen charged with attempted assassination of President Trump

Cole Allen, the man arrested for opening fire at Saturday’s White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner, appeared for his arraignment on Monday afternoon. He has been charged with three counts, including attempting to assassinate Trump.

Per NBC News, he has been charged with the attempted assassination count, as well as interstate transportation of weapons and discharge of a firearm during a violent crime. He appeared before Magistrate Judge Matthew J Sharbaugh in Washington, DC. A hearing will be held on Thursday to determine if he is eligible for pre-trial release. His preliminary hearing is set for May 11.

Shots rang out shortly after 8:30 pm on Saturday, with Trump, First Lady Melania Trump, and other officials being rushed out of the ballroom. Allen is alleged to have stormed the security checkpoint and engaged in gunfire with Secret Service agents. He was arrested at the scene in possession of firearms and knives. Authorities have said that Allen traveled from California to DC by train, and stayed over at the Washington Hilton hotel where the dinner was being held. 

In a manifesto left behind by the alleged gunman, he wrote that he was "no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes." He wrote that he was targeting administration officials in priority order from "highest-ranking to lowest," and said that while he wanted to "minimize casualties," he would "still go through most everyone here to get to the targets if it were absolutely necessary (on the basis that most people *chose* to attend a speech by a pedophile, rapist, and traitor, and are thus complicit) but I really hope it doesn’t come to that."

Acting AG Todd Blanche said on Sunday morning that "a number of search warrants" had been executed in Los Angeles and Washington, DC, the night before. We executed search warrants on electronic devices that we found that we believe belong to the suspect. And we're still looking to try and understand a motive," he said at the time. 

"From our preliminary investigation, it does appear the suspect was targeting members of the administration. I don't want to go beyond that because we don't have specifics yet about particular members of the administration, except that we do understand that that was his goal and his target."

"We know that he traveled from Los Angeles to Chicago and the Chicago to DC. It appears he traveled by train during both those legs of his trip and checked into the Washington Hilton a couple of days ago on the 24th, and then obviously tried to breach the perimeter last night and was quickly subdued."

Speaking at a press conference on Monday afternoon, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said that Allen traveled by train from Los Angeles to Chicago and Chicago to Dc on April 21. He made a hotel reservation at the Washington Hilton for April 24 through 26. He arrived at the hotel on the afternoon of the April 24 and checked in.

At around 8:40 pm, "Allen approached the security checkpoint on the terrace level of the hotel, which is again a floor above where the dinner was taking place. He ran through the magnetometer holding a long gun. As he did so, US Secret Service personnel assigned to the checkpoint heard a loud gunshot." 

He said one Secret Service officer was shot in the chest and was wearing a ballistic vest that blocked the bullet. "This heroic officer who was hit fired five times at Allen, who was not shot, but fell to the ground and was promptly arrested."

US Attorney Jeanine Pirro said that the three charges that were issued on Monday are just the beginning. "There will be additional charges as this investigation continues to unfold." Blanche said that the attempted assassination charge alone carries a sentence of life in prison.