Correspondents’ dinner suspect faces new charge of assaulting federal officer

Cole Tomas Allen, the suspected gunman at the White House correspondents’ dinner, is facing an additional related charge for assaulting a federal officer with a deadly weapon, federal authorities announced on Tuesday. The new charge, which formally accuses Allen of firing at a US Secret Service agent at a security checkpoint, is part of a new four-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Washington. The other three counts are charges Allen previously faced : attempted assassination, discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence and illegal transportation of a firearm and ammunition across state lines. On 25 April, Allen, a 31-year-old California man, allegedly sprinted past a security checkpoint at the Washington Hilton hotel, where the annual press gala was taking place. Prosecutors allege Allen was running toward the hotel’s ballroom with the intent to assassinate Donald Trump and other senior administration officials, who were dining with roughly 2,500 journalists and other guests. In Tuesday’s announcement, federal prosecutors claimed that as Allen rushed the security perimeter, he fired a shotgun and hit a Secret Service agent in the chest. Several other weapons were found in his possession, prosecutors said. …