suspect

May 9 (UPI) — A man accused of shooting and injuring three Syracuse, N.Y., police officers surrendered without incident Saturday after an hours-long standoff in the city, authorities said.

The suspect surrendered to police at 3:15 p.m. Saturday, nine hours after barricading himself in an apartment complex on the city’s south side, Syracuse Police Chief Chief Mark Rusin told reporters.

The man’s arrest came after he allegedly fired shots at officers who had formed a perimeter around the building, hitting two of them in the arm and another in the hand, the chief said.

“They’re in stable condition,” he said. “Most of the injuries are to their arms, to their hands, but they are in stable condition and they’re with their families right now, so the officers are okay.”

The incident began at 6:30 a.m. with a call to police about a man with a machete menacing people and a dog and escalated from there.

It drew a large cadre of responding units, including the Syracuse Police Department’s SWAT team, the Onondaga County Sheriff’s Office, New York State Police and the FBI.

Residents from the surrounding area were evacuated from their homes during the standoff.

Rusin said the suspect, who is expected to be arraigned on Sunday, could face attempted murder charges for shooting at the officers, as well as possible charges of assault and criminal weapons possession.

Syracuse Mayor Sharon Owens praised the responders for their “outstanding coordination.

“This community should be very proud of the coordinated efforts of all of our law enforcement and emergency services teams to bring this situation to a close, which what is obviously — aside from our officers being harmed — the best scenario we can get with what we have.”

WASHINGTON — A man charged with attacking the White House Correspondents’ Assn. dinner is seeking to disqualify top Justice Department officials from direct involvement in prosecuting him because they could be considered victims or witnesses in the case, creating a potential conflict of interest.

Acting Atty. Gen. Todd Blanche and U.S. Atty. Jeanine Pirro were attending the April 25 event at the Washington Hilton when Cole Tomas Allen allegedly ran through a security checkpoint and fired a shotgun at a Secret Service officer.

In a court filing late Thursday, Allen’s attorneys argued that it creates at least the appearance of a conflict of interest for Blanche and Pirro to be making any prosecutorial decisions in the case.

“As this case proceeds closer to trial, the country and the world will continue to wonder — how can the American justice system permit a victim to prosecute a criminal defendant in a case involving them?” defense attorneys Eugene Ohm and Tezira Abe wrote.

Ohm and Abe, who are assistant federal public defenders, suggested that the appointment of a special prosecutor might be warranted. They urged U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden, a Trump nominee assigned to Allen’s case, to disqualify Pirro, Blanche and possibly other Justice Department officials from direct involvement in the investigation and prosecution.

“Both heard gunshots, which presumably forced them to duck below the tables with the rest of the occupants. They were quickly evacuated. Shortly thereafter, they learned that law enforcement believed the target was certain administration officials,” Ohm and Abe wrote.

Pirro said her office will respond to the defense lawyers’ arguments in its own court filing.

“We will not tolerate people who come to the District of Columbia to engage in antidemocratic acts of political violence; and we will prosecute all such acts to the fullest extent of the law,” Pirro said in a statement.

Allen is scheduled to be arraigned Monday on charges in an indictment handed up Tuesday by a grand jury in Washington.

The charges include attempting to assassinate President Trump, who is a longtime friend of Pirro’s. Blanche served as a personal attorney for Trump before joining the Justice Department last year.

Blanche, through a spokesperson, referred a request for comment to Pirro’s office.

Allen also is charged with assaulting a federal officer with a deadly weapon and two additional firearms counts. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted of the attempted assassination charge alone.

The Secret Service officer who was shot once in a bullet-resistant vest fired his own weapon five times without hitting anybody. Allen, 31, of Torrance, was injured but was not shot.

Kunzelman writes for the Associated Press.

WASHINGTON — A federal magistrate judge on Monday pressed a jail official to explain why a man charged with trying to storm the White House Correspondents’ Assn. dinner and attempting to kill President Trump was placed on restrictive suicide watch after his arrest.

Officials at the city jail in Washington removed Cole Tomas Allen from its designated “suicide status” over the weekend after his attorneys complained that he had been unnecessarily confined in a padded room with constant lighting, repeatedly strip-searched and placed in restraints outside his cell.

But the relaxed conditions didn’t satisfy U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui’s concerns that Allen may have received disparate, punitive treatment in violation of his due process rights. Faruqui noted that the D.C. jail routinely houses convicted killers and others charged with violent crimes without placing them on 24-hour lockdown.

“It could drive a person crazy to be in that situation,” he said.

Faruqui apologized to Allen over his confinement conditions. In response to a news report on that apology, U.S. Atty. Jeanine Pirro criticized him in a social media post that said Faruqui “believes a defendant armed to the teeth and attempting to assassinate the president is entitled to preferential treatment in his confinement compared to every other defendant.”

Allen’s lawyers said he wasn’t showing any suicidal risk factors after his arrest. But a jail psychiatrist evaluated him and initially concluded that he posed a suicide risk, according to Tony Towns, acting general counsel for the city’s corrections department.

“Every case is different, your honor,” Towns said.

Allen was moved into protective custody after the jail lifted the suicide prevention measures. His attorneys didn’t object to his new confinement status. They had asked the magistrate to cancel Monday’s hearing, but Faruqui forged ahead with it due to his “grave concerns” about Allen’s treatment in jail.

Allen was injured but was not shot during the April 25 attack at the Washington Hilton, which disrupted one of the highest-profile annual events in the nation’s capital.

Allen was armed with guns and knives when he ran through a security checkpoint and pointed his weapon at a Secret Service agent, who fired back five times, authorities said. Pirro has said that Allen fired a shot that struck the agent’s bullet-resistant vest.

Allen later told FBI agents that he didn’t expect to survive the attack, which could help explain why he was deemed to be a possible suicide risk, said Justice Department prosecutor Jocelyn Ballantine.

Allen, 31, of Torrance, is charged with attempted assassination of the president and two additional firearms counts. He faces up to life in prison if convicted of the assassination count alone.

Defense attorney Eugene Ohm said Allen was prohibited from having anything in his cell. He asked for a Bible and a visit from a chaplain but hasn’t received either, according to Ohm.

Kunzelman writes for the Associated Press.

WASHINGTON — The Secret Service says a suspect who opened fire Monday on the National Mall did so after being confronted by officers.

Secret Service Deputy Director Matt Quinn said officers returned fire. A bystander was struck by the suspect, Quinn said.

Quinn said the motorcade of Vice President JD Vance transited through the area not long before the shooting, but there was no indication it was the target.

The incident happened Monday afternoon around 15th Street and Independence Avenue near the Washington Monument.

The Secret Service encouraged people to avoid the area as emergency crews responded to the shooting not far from the White House, where President Trump was holding a small-business event.

The White House was briefly locked down as authorities investigated the incident. The Secret Service ushered journalists who were outside into the briefing room, and Trump continued his event without interruption.

Vito Maggiolo, spokesman for the D.C. Fire and EMS Department, said emergency units took an adult male to a hospital and were treating what appeared to be a teenage male for minor injuries. He referred other questions to the police department.

The incident drew a large police presence, coming just over a week after a gunman tried to storm the White House Correspondents’ Assn. dinner with guns and knives. Cole Tomas Allen has been charged in that incident, in which a Secret Service officer was wounded.

Secret Service agent at White House correspondents’ dinner was ‘definitively’ hit by suspect’s bullet, prosecutor says.

Authorities in the United States have said that the suspect accused of attempting to kill President Donald Trump was the one who shot a Secret Service agent at the White House correspondents’ dinner last month.

Officials initially did not provide details on how the agent – who was wearing a bulletproof vest – was injured. On Sunday, US Attorney Jeanine Pirro told CNN that investigators have confirmed that the agent was shot by the alleged gunman, Cole Tomas Allen.

“It is definitively his bullet. He hit at that Secret Service agent. He had every intention to kill him and anyone who got in his way, on his way to killing the president of the United States,” Pirro said.

“This was a premeditated, violent act, calculated to take down the president, and anyone who was in the line of fire.”

She added that a pellet that came from the suspect’s shotgun was “intertwined with the fiber” of the agent’s protective vest.

The determination could lead to additional legal charges against the 31-year-old suspect. It also rules out speculation that the agent may have been struck by so-called “friendly fire”.

The Justice Department announced three charges against Allen last week – attempting to assassinate Trump, the transportation of a firearm across states with intent to commit a felony and the discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence.

A sentence of life in prison faces anyone convicted of attempted assassination.

Last week, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said Allen had travelled via train from his home near Los Angeles to Chicago and then to Washington, DC.

He arrived in the US capital on April 24, the day before the dinner at the Washington Hilton hotel, and checked in.

According to Blanche, during the dinner, Allen approached a security checkpoint on the terrace of the hotel, one level above the ballroom where Trump was.

“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,” Blanche said.

“One Secret Service officer was shot in the chest, but was wearing a ballistic vest that worked. This heroic officer, who was hit, fired five times at Allen, who was not shot, but fell to the ground and was promptly arrested.”

Officials have said Allen was carrying a shotgun, a semiautomatic pistol and three knives.

The shooting, considered to be the third assassination attempt against Trump since 2024, has shaken US politics. The White House has accused the US president’s Democratic rivals of inspiring political violence with their verbal attacks on the administration.

But Trump himself is known for personal attacks against opponents, and critics have accused him of using the shooting to censor his rivals.

A CLEANER accused of supplying Liam Payne with drugs before his death could be let off with community service and a rehab course after reportedly striking a plea deal.

Ezequiel David Pereyra, who worked at the Argentina hotel where the ex-One Direction star died, might not face trial and his sentence could be cut from a possible 15 years to a suspended term.

Last night sources said Pereyra was “over the moon”.

The sources also claimed waiter Braian Nahuel Paiz, who is also accused of supplying cocaine to the star, has been offered the same deal. However it is understood that Paiz, 25, will not be accepting the deal.

It came as Liam’s girlfriend, Kate Cassidy, posted a heartbreaking video of her last day with the singer, showing them riding horses together.

A source said: “This will be terribly upsetting for Liam’s  loved ones to hear — as there is now the possibility that there will never be a trial and they will never get answers as to what happened that night.

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“No one will be held accountable for his death.”

Pereyra, 22, was awaiting trial for allegedly selling cocaine to Liam, 31, before he fell to his death from his hotel balcony in Buenos Aires in October 2024.

He was facing a hefty jail sentence if found guilty.

But his new lawyer, Augusto Maria Cassiau, is said to have struck a deal  with prosecutors to lessen his charge if he admitted his role in the incident.

His new charge will be “facilitation for personal consumption, non-profit” —  admitting he gave the drugs to Liam when he died but he was not a dealer.

Pereyra has been offered a two-year suspended sentence, with time already served in custody awaiting trial being  taken into consideration.

He will have to  perform community service and complete a drug awareness course. 

Pereyra  was released from jail and put under house arrest in December after an appeal court agreed he had  family support, a fixed address and no criminal record.

Last month Paiz, who was also released from prison in December, had his house arrest conditions scrapped.

No new evidence has appeared in the case file and prosecutors have been unable to  secure a trial date.

In October, on the first anniversary of Liam’s death, Pereyra exclusively spoke to The Sun, offering his condolences to Liam’s family.

He also claimed bosses at the CasaSur Palermo Hotel ignored Liam’s drug use.

In a TikTok video posted on Wednesday, the same day prosecutors offered a plea deal, Kate, 27, can be seen riding horses with Liam.

She wrote: “Enjoy each moment life brings you.

“Because I didn’t know this would be the last time I’d ever see my boyfriend again in this lifetime.”

Liam had flown to Argentina with Kate   to see his former 1D bandmate Niall Horan in concert.

Liam extended the trip but Kate returned to the US.

An autopsy confirmed he died from multiple trauma and internal and external bleeding.

April 27 (UPI) — Cole Allen was due to be arraigned in federal court in Washington, D.C. on Monday, accused of carrying out a shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner on Saturday, at which President Donald Trump, the First Lady and many of his cabinet were present.

U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, Jeanine Pirro, told a news conference that a suspect would be formally charged with an initial two counts — using a firearm during a crime of violence and assaulting a federal officer using a dangerous weapon.

“The defendant will be arraigned on Monday in federal district court. But make no mistake, there will be many more charges based upon the information that we are learning in this very fluid situation,” said Pirro.

“It is clear, based upon what we know so far, that this individual was intent on doing as much harm and as much damage as he could,” added Pirro, who said she was present when the shooting started at the event at the Washington Hilton hotel on Saturday night.

Beyond that, Pirro said investigators were working to discover the suspect’s possible motivation for the alleged attack and would not be drawn on whether he was specifically targeting Trump, or whether he was cooperating with law enforcement.

“At this point, what we know is the individual charged the checkpoint with a firearm in his hand. We know he was running in the direction of the ballroom that the president was in as well as other cabinet members. So what his specific motivation was, we can’t say at this point. However, as we continue to investigate that, we’ll continue to work towards that,” she said.

Monday’s hearing is expected to be short — only for the judge to make Allen aware of his legal rights and for Pirro’s office to apply to remand Allen in custody.

The suspect has yet to be officially named by authorities but NPR said two people familiar with the investigation, who were not authorized to speak publicly, identified him as Cole Tomas Allen, 31, of Torrance, Calif.

Authorities believe the suspect acted alone in the incident in which a Secret Service Uniformed Division officer was allegedly shot and no one else has been arrested.

The Secret Service officer, who was wearing a bullet proof vest, was treated in the hospital and released.

Trump said Sunday that a suspect arrested in connection with the shooting had written an anti-administration “manifesto” that allegedly stated he was targeting members of the Trump administration.

He said that, based on the contents of the document, the suspect was “a sick guy” and anti-Christian.

“When you read his manifesto, he hates Christians. That’s one thing for sure. He hates Christians, a hatred. And I think his sister or his brother actually was complaining about it. You know, they were even complaining to law enforcement. So he was, he was a very troubled guy,” said Trump.

The suspect reportedly sent the manifesto to members of his family minutes before that incident occurred, along with an apology, who then raised the alarm

The New London Police Department in Connecticut confirmed being contacted about two hours after the alleged attack at around 10:49 p.m. EDT on Saturday “by an individual who expressed concern about the incident that occurred at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner earlier in the evening.”

Allen was a mechanical engineering graduate from the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena and also had a master’s degree in computer science from California State University Dominguez Hills in Carson City, according to the Los Angeles Times.

His LinkedIn profile states that he was a member of Caltech’s Christian fellowship, as well as the Nerf club.

More recently, he was working developing video games and as a part-time private tutor teaching math and biology.

Allen’s voting registration record denotes “no party preference” and the only known record of any political donation in the past 10 years dates from 2024 when he gave $25, via an online fundraising platform, to former Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign in the Nov. 2024 election.

April 25 (UPI) — President Donald Trump said Sunday a suspect arrested in connection with a shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner in Washington, D.C., had written an anti-administration “manifesto.”

Other reports indicated the suspect, identified as Cole Thomas Allen, 31, of Torrence, Calif., had sent a communication to family members minutes before the late Saturday incident at the Washington Hilton Hotel

In the note, he reportedly said he was targeting members of the Trump administration in his attack.

Trump told Fox News Allen’s “manifesto” indicated he “is a sick guy.

“When you read his manifesto, he hates Christians. That’s one thing for sure. He hates Christians, a hatred. And I think his sister or his brother actually was complaining about it. You know, they were even complaining to law enforcement. So he was, he was a very troubled guy.”

Security camera footage supplied by the White House showed a man charging through a security checkpoint outside the hotel ballroom where the correspondents’ dinner was being held.

The Washington Metropolitan Police Department said one person was in custody in connection with the incident and it is believed he acted alone. Two firearms and multiple knives were recovered at the scene and a Secret Service Uniformed Division officer was injured and hospitalized with “non-life threatening injuries,” they added.

The White House told Fox Sunday Allen’s family members had notified the New London, Conn., police department on Saturday when they received the communication. Administration officials also claimed Cole Allen’s sister, Avriana Allen, told the Secret Service her brother had been making “radical” statements and was in possession of weapons.

Meanwhile, NBC News reported the communication shows Allen apologized to his parents, colleagues, students, bystanders and others for what he was about to do.

“I don’t expect forgiveness,” Allen reportedly wrote. “Again, my sincere apologies.”

He also reportedly criticized the president without specifically mentioning him and noted that security precautions at the hotel were not as stringent as he had expected them to be.

Administration officials “are targets, prioritized from highest-ranking to lowest,” he wrote, according to NBC News, adding, “I experience rage thinking about everything this administration has done.”

The New York Times reported federal authorities in Los Angeles served a search warrant on Allen’s house in Torrance but refused to comment on Trump’s assertion that Allen had penned a “manifesto” before correspondents’ dinner attack.

Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche said a preliminary investigation had determined the suspect “traveled by train from Los Angeles to Chicago, and then Chicago to Washington, D.C., where he checked into the hotel where the correspondent’s dinner was at in the last day or two.”

On NBC’s Meet the Press, Blanche said authorities believe that the two firearms the suspect carried during the attack had been purchased “within the past couple of years,” adding, “We believe that he was targeting administration officials in this attack, attempted attack. But that’s, again, quite preliminary as law enforcement continues to go through all the evidence.”

U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro told reporters Allen is expected to be arraigned Monday. He is facing two preliminary charges including using a firearm during a crime of violence and assault on a federal officer using a dangerous weapon.

Media analyses of Allen’s social media accounts portray him as self-described independent computer game developer, including a game called “Bohrdom” that was released in 2018. He reportedly earned an undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering at the California Institute of Technology.

At a press briefing after returning to the White House following the incident, Trump said he believed that this was a “lone wolf” attack as he praised the response of Secret Service and law enforcement after recognizing the threat.

Trump said there was no indication of a motive, political or otherwise, but that “we’ll find out very quickly” about this “very sick person.”

Allen has been taken to the hospital, as has the Secret Service agent who was injured, The Washington Post reported.

Dinner was being served at the annual gathering of the Washington press organization when shots could be heard from the ballroom, causing many in the room to freeze.

President Trump, Melania Trump and other members of the administration on the dais and in the ballroom were evacuated within minutes of shots being heard over C-SPAN and other networks broadcasts.

As the officials were cleared from the room, Secret Service agents swarmed it and ordered other guests to stay in their seats.

Trump said in a post on Truth Social that he wanted to return to the dinner and for the “SHOW TO GO ON,” but security insisted that they leave the hotel and return to the White House.

Most of the other guests remained in the ballroom after organizers made an announcement that the show would continue shortly.

There was also speculation whether Trump would return to the dinner after the announcement the show would continue and the Presidential Seal was not immediately removed from the podium on the dais.

“Law Enforcement has requested that we leave the premises, consistent with protocol, which we will do immediately,” Trump posted about an hour after the incident.

“The First Lady, plus the Vice President, and all Cabinet members, are in perfect condition,” Trump posted. “I have spoken with all the representatives in charge of the event, and we will be rescheduling within 30 days.”

An announcement in the ballroom mirrored Trump’s announcement about rescheduling the dinner for next month.

C-SPAN reported that waiters started to clear the salad portion of dinner as guests started to open wine while waiting for more information about the situation before the announcement that the dinner is going to be rescheduled.

Cole Tomas Allen, the suspected gunman who rattled the nation’s top leaders by exchanging gunfire with federal authorities after racing through the secure perimeter of a press gala in Washington late Saturday, had made a long journey from Southern California and written a “manifesto” threatening Trump administration officials before the short-lived attack, officials said.

Allen, a 31-year-old Caltech graduate and high school tutor from Torrance, is believed to have taken a train first to Chicago and then on to D.C. before checking into the Washington Hilton with two guns he had previously purchased, authorities said.

The attacker managed to bypass several layers of security at the White House Correspondents’ Assn. dinner before being taken down by armed agents outside the ballroom where President Trump and an array of other top federal officials were seated.

Allen could not be reached for comment, nor could an attorney for him be identified as of Sunday.

According to Trump, Allen had also authored a “manifesto” prior to the attack, which he had shared with family and which his brother had flagged to local law enforcement in Connecticut. The New York Post reported that Allen described himself in the document as the “Friendly Federal Assassin” and revealed he intended to kill Trump administration officials.

New London (Conn.) Police Deputy Chief John Perry said that around 10:30 p.m. a man came into the lobby of the agency’s headquarters to report that he’d received a troubling email from Allen. The relative initially thought it was spam, but then saw the news of what unfolded in D.C. and felt he needed to report it.

Perry would not say what was in the email, and did not know exactly what time it was sent. But the relative said he only saw and opened it around 10 p.m. “I think he was watching what was going on and kind of put two and two together and said I need to go to my local PD,” Perry said.

Police officials provided the email to the Secret Service and FBI, he said. Trump said the document would be released, but it had not been as of Sunday. Officials said criminal charges against the suspect were pending, with an initial court appearance likely Monday.

Late Saturday, both local and federal law enforcement, including from the FBI, swarmed the Torrance neighborhood where Allen is believed to have lived in a home with his family, with Torrance police clearing the road and putting up police tape along part of the street. A man who responded to a knock on the front door said, “Not right now,” and declined to comment further.

The thwarted attack marked the latest in a string of incidents in which gunmen have gotten dangerously close to Trump, renewing questions about the safety and security of the nation’s commander in chief at a time of intense political division at home and roiling conflicts abroad.

Trump was grazed on the ear by a bullet at one of his presidential campaign events in Butler, Pa., in 2024 — the first of two attempts on his life during that campaign cycle. The other involved a gunman targeting the president as he golfed in Florida, before federal agents intervened. Earlier this year, a gunman was killed at the president’s Mar-a-Lago club, after breaching a security perimeter.

On Sunday, questions swirled as to how such a security lapse could have happened again — and whether large, high-profile events are safe for top officials in a nation where firearms are easy to obtain and ubiquitous.

Acting Atty. Gen. Todd Blanche, in an interview on “Meet the Press” Sunday morning, said federal authorities believe the suspect had set out alone “to target folks that work in the administration, likely including the president,” but that a motive was still being determined and evidence still being gathered — including from devices taken from Allen and in interviews with people who know him.

“As of now, we don’t have any connection to any particular policy directive of President Trump or Iran or anything else that we’re doing in this country, but we are looking into it,” he said.

Blanche also downplayed the threat posed to Trump, other officials in the room such as Vice President JD Vance and First Lady Melania Trump, and the hundreds of other attendees to the annual event — suggesting Allen had essentially been stopped in his tracks shortly after making his break through a checkpoint of metal detectors and federal agents, dramatic video of which Trump posted online.

“Let’s not forget that the suspect didn’t get very far. He barely broke the perimeter,” Blanche said. “And so while this was extraordinarily dangerous and put a lot of lives at risk and there’s no doubt that that’s something that we’re going to have to learn from over the next couple weeks, the system worked. We were safe, President Trump was safe. His Secret Service agents kept him safe. All of us were safe.”

Blanche’s assessment of the attacker’s breach past security — which he said was only “by a few feet” — was disputed by some.

According to other attendees, including Times journalists, event staff were checking tickets, though not very thoroughly, at multiple points prior to escalators that descended to the metal detectors where Allen allegedly dashed past armed security.

The detectors were right outside the event hall and where the bathrooms for the event were located, and the assailant was taken to the ground about 10 to 15 feet beyond them, attendees said. The shots — including two from the gunman, according to Blanche — were heard in the ballroom.

Allen, who graduated from Caltech in 2017 with a degree in mechanical engineering and is registered to vote with no party preference, made a $25 political contribution earmarked for then-Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign challenging Trump for the presidency in 2024.

While at Caltech, he was a teaching assistant and a member of the school’s Christian fellowship and the Nerf club, according to his LinkedIn profile. He later studied computer science as a post-graduate student at CSU-Dominguez Hills.

Allen was named teacher of the month in December 2024 at C2 Education, which specializes in college test preparation, tutoring and academic advising. A representative for C2 Education was not immediately available for comment.

According to the New York Post, Allen himself had derided the event security in his writings beforehand, describing finding far less security at the hotel than he had expected when he arrived, armed, to check in.

“I expected security cameras at every bend, bugged hotel rooms, armed agents every 10 feet, metal detectors out the wazoo. What I got (who knows, maybe they’re pranking me!) is nothing. No damn security. Not in transport. Not in the hotel. Not in the event,” he wrote, according to the Post. “I walk in with multiple weapons and not a single person there considers the possibility that I could be a threat.”

Authorities did not detail Allen’s alleged travel route to D.C., other than to say it was by train. In response to questions about whether Allen had taken Amtrak to get to Washington and whether his luggage would have undergone any security screening, Amtrak said only that it is cooperating with federal authorities.

Trump also zeroed in on security at the hotel being inadequate, in addition to posting the video of the suspect rushing past security and multiple pictures of him detained on the floor of the hotel.

While praising the federal agents who took the attacker down, Trump suggested that events with top U.S. officials should be held in more secure facilities — such as the giant ballroom he is trying to build on the White House grounds after demolishing the former East Wing.

“What happened last night is exactly the reason that our great Military, Secret Service, Law Enforcement and, for different reasons, every President for the last 150 years, have been DEMANDING that a large, safe, and secure Ballroom be built ON THE GROUNDS OF THE WHITE HOUSE,” Trump wrote on social media Sunday. “This event would never have happened with the Militarily Top Secret Ballroom currently under construction at the White House. It cannot be built fast enough!”

Weijia Jiang, president of the correspondents’ association, said in a statement Sunday that the group’s board “will be meeting to assess what happened and determine how to proceed.” She also thanked the U.S. Secret Service and other law enforcement for keeping people safe, and praised journalists in the room for leaping to work to inform the public of what had occurred.

Times staff writers Richard Winton, Ben Wieder and Justine McDaniel contributed to this report.

Trump says the shooter has been apprehended and that First Lady Melania Trump and Vice President JD Vance are ‘in perfect condition’.

Ex-intelligence officer Amjad Youssef was seen shooting blindfolded civilians in a leaked video.

Syrian authorities have arrested the main suspect accused of the 2013 Tadamon massacre in Damascus, during which at least 41 people were killed.

Amjad Youssef was arrested following a “tightly executed security operation”, the interior ministry said, adding that surveillance and tracking operations were employed for days across the Al-Ghab Plain in Hama.

Footage circulating on social media showed the moment Youssef was arrested. He is seen handcuffed on the floor and then in a vehicle surrounded by security forces, with traces of blood on his face.

An intelligence officer during the leadership of former Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, Youssef was responsible for security operations in southern Damascus during the Syrian uprising. He has been accused of numerous crimes against civilians.

In 2022, a leaked video appeared to show evidence of crimes committed by Syrian forces. Youssef, whose face appeared clearly in the footage, was seen shooting civilians who had been detained and blindfolded, with their hands bound.

A military recruit filmed the incident and leaked the video, date-stamped on the day of the Tadamon massacre – April 16, 2013, after fleeing war-torn Syria.

The release of the video footage triggered an outcry, with some families recognising their relatives being killed in the video.

Youssef went into hiding after the fall of Assad in December 2024.

The Tadamon district was a battlefront between Syrian government forces and opposition forces at that time.

Youssef was trained in military intelligence and rose through the ranks to become an investigator.

Accountability following the massacre

In August 2023, German police arrested Ahmed al-Harmouni, a friend of Youssef, also accused of taking part in the Tadamon massacre, after a three-year investigation in cooperation with the Syrian Centre for Justice and Accountability.

Syria’s new government began a security campaign to pursue figures of the former leadership, while citizens launched a public fundraising campaign to offer a reward to anyone who could find those accused of atrocities, primarily Youssef.

Since then, several suspects of the Tadamon tragedy have been arrested and confessed to the killings.

Human Rights Watch visited the southern Damascus neighbourhood in December 2024, where it found human remains that showed signs consistent with execution and called on the transitional authorities to preserve evidence of war crimes.

Dylan Sprouse sprang to action early Friday morning when he encountered a trespasser at his Hollywood Hills home.

Sources familiar with the incident told The Times that “The Suite Life of Zack & Cody” star tackled a man on the lawn near his home after his wife, Victoria’s Secret model Barbara Palvin, spotted “the creepy guy.” Palvin made an emergency call to police around 12:30 a.m. and reported a possible burglary.

TMZ, citing unnamed sources, reported that Sprouse had a gun and held the trespasser down until police arrived.

Police told The Times that the suspect was taken in on outstanding warrants and that no injuries were reported. Additionally, the suspect did not make it inside the couple’s 1920s Spanish-style home, only onto the property.

TMZ obtained footage of the arrest, which showed a suspect, whose face was blurred out, being handcuffed outside a police vehicle. A skateboard was leaned against the fence of the Disney alum’s property, and a “Private Property, No Trespassing” sign was posted on the gate.

Representatives for Sprouse and Palvin have not responded to The Times’ request for comment.

The couple met at a party in 2017 and by the fall of 2018, Palvin was gushing to Vogue that she was “very much in love.”

“I feel like I found the perfect guy,” she said of Sprouse. “He’s very kind and gentle.”

The couple tied the knot in the summer of 2023. In 2024, Palvin walked in the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show and during a backstage interview said that Sprouse always has something up his sleeve to surprise her.

Outside the show, Sprouse revealed on the pink carpet that he had signs made with the faces of the couple’s fur babies, a French bulldog named Piggy Cow and a cat named Klaus Von Sprouse, to hold up while Palvin strutted the catwalk.

Mahmoud Khader Abed Adra, sought for over four decades, was surrendered by Palestinian authorities

A man suspected of organising a deadly attack on a Jewish restaurant in Paris has been arrested and placed in custody in France after being handed over by Palestinian authorities.

Mahmoud Khader Abed Adra, also known as Hicham Harb, arrived in France on Thursday after Palestinian officials surrendered him to French authorities, a handover that French President Emmanuel Macron linked directly to France’s recent recognition of Palestinian statehood.

On August 9, 1982, three to five men threw a grenade into Jo Goldenberg, a Jewish-owned restaurant in the Rue des Rosiers, in Paris’s historic Marais district, before opening fire on the street outside.

Six people were killed and 22 wounded in the incident.

The attack was blamed on the Fatah-Revolutionary Council, a Palestinian armed faction that had split from the mainstream Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

Adra was arrested in the West Bank by Palestinian security forces in September last year.

French antiterrorism prosecutors filed an extradition request days later, and he was flown to the Villacoublay military airbase outside Paris on Thursday, where he was taken into custody.

His lawyer described the extradition as “a serious violation of Palestinian fundamental law”.

“Forty-four years is too long,” said David Pere, a lawyer representing several families.

Two other suspects are already in French custody, and in February, France’s highest court confirmed that a trial will proceed, a ruling that had been challenged by the defendants.

Macron praised the Palestinian Authority’s cooperation, saying it reflected a commitment by President Mahmoud Abbas to work with France on counterterrorism.

Abbas had told French newspaper Le Figaro late last year that France’s recognition of Palestinian statehood in September 2025 had “created an appropriate framework” for the extradition request.