US Secret Service Director Sean Curran says the agent hit with gunfire at the White House Correspondents' Dinner was not hit by friendly fire but rather a shotgun blast from the suspect. Speaking with Fox News on Thursday afternoon, Curran remarkably claimed that the venue was 'perfectly' secured.
He set the record straight that the Secret Service agent who was hit with gunfire was not hit by friendly fire, as some have speculated. The recovering agent remains unidentified.
'All the evidence I have seen, the suspect shot our officer point-blank range with a shotgun,' Curran stated. 'Our officer heroically returned fire while being shot point-blank range in the chest with a shotgun; he was able to get all five shots.'
Curran confirmed that the suspect, Cole Thomas Allen, 31, of Torrance, California, was never hit by a bullet. In fact, the return fire is not what brought Allen down; instead, he hit his knee on a magnetometer case and fell to the ground before being apprehended.
Allen was wearing a tactical vest as he sprinted through the Secret Service checkpoint, Curran added. Officers later stripped the suspect down 'to ensure that he did not have any other devices on him.'
Secret Service Director Sean Curran said that the Washington Hilton hotel where the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner shooting occurred was set up 'perfectly.' Alleged gunman Cole Thomas Allen took a selfie before attempting to shoot President Donald Trump and his Cabinet officials at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner on Saturday.
One Secret Service agent was hit at 'point-blank range' with a shotgun blast before returning fire at the suspected gunman, Curran said. Allen was relocated to another area to get him safely away from the scene.
The Secret Service Director shared that the gunman still had a long way to go to get close to the President, who was over a hundred yards away in a different room on a lower level. 'The site was set up perfectly, I will tell you, I would not change the site again,' Curran said.
Still, the Secret Service boss would prefer to host presidential events at the White House, where his agents have more control over the setting, lending credence to Trump's ballroom push. 'I always prefer to be at the White House. It's something that we completely control, and look, there is an impact to the community, when we do these sites, there is an impact on not only traffic, but the community, and there's budget concerns there.'
When pressed by the host about whether Trump should wear a bulletproof vest going forward, after a NewsNation reporter asked the President himself on Thursday afternoon, Curran evaded the question. 'That's not something I would talk about on air,' the Secret Service Director shot back. Trump, for his part, said he does not know if he could 'handle looking 20 pounds heavier.'
Allen appeared in court on Thursday for a detention hearing. It was the first time that he had been seen publicly since Monday, when he was arraigned on three counts, including attempted assassination and two gun charges. Allen reportedly wished Judge Moxila Upadhyaya 'good morning' and wore a bright orange prison jumpsuit and a white undershirt as he took his seat next to his attorney with a stone-faced expression.
