The Story Behind the D.C. Incident and a Controversial Manifesto
By Editorial Staff
At approximately 8:34 p.m. EDT, Cole Tomas Allen was confronted by security near the main metal detector screening area of the Washington Hilton while dinner was being served inside the main ballroom. He ran past the security checkpoint and fired at least one shot. He was chased and subsequently apprehended. According to pool reports, several U.S. Secret Service agents yelled “shots fired” inside the venue.
Meanwhile, in Torrance, California, Allen’s family home was surrounded first by media, then neighbors, and eventually the Torrance Police Department in the minutes and hours after the shooting in Washington, D.C. By 10:30 p.m., the FBI arrived with approximately three vehicles and remained on standby for about an hour until armored units could arrive. As the night progressed, the crowd continued to grow with onlookers, law enforcement and media. Around 11 p.m., an armored BearCat vehicle made an announcement for anyone inside the home to surrender before authorities made entry alongside members of the Secret Service.
Many neighbors who knew the family described them as normal and said they were occasionally seen walking their dog.
Neighbors expressed disbelief and shock at the situation.
Back in D.C.
At some point before he ran through the manned metal detector at the entrance of the Washington Hilton ballroom, Allen sent his family an email explaining his actions, which the Trump administration has referred to as a manifesto while shaping the narrative following the shooting.
“When you read his manifesto, he hates Christians,” Trump lied to Fox News. “He hates Christians, a hatred.” But Allen not only self-indentifies as a Christian – and thanks his church as family – he specifically references Christian scripture as he raises and responds to five possible objections to what he is about to do, two of which are based on Christian scripture: Should he turn the other cheek? (Matthew 5:38-39) Should he render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s? (Matthew 22:21, Mark 12:17, Luke 20:25). As author Jeff Sharlet explained on Democracy Now! The justifications he gave in response echo those given by Christian anti-abortion terrorists. “He’s turning it to different ends,” Sharlot said. “But the last thing you can say is this is anti-Christian.”
Below is Allen’s “manifesto” in full:
Hello everybody!
So I may have given a lot of people a surprise today. Let me start off by apologizing to everyone whose trust I abused.
I apologize to my parents for saying I had an interview without specifying it was for “Most Wanted.”
I apologize to my colleagues and students for saying I had a personal emergency (by the time anyone reads this, I probably most certainly DO need to go to the ER, but can hardly call that not a self-inflicted status.)
I apologize to all of the people I traveled next to, all the workers who handled my luggage, and all the other non-targeted people at the hotel who I put in danger simply by being near.
I apologize to everyone who was abused and/or murdered before this, to all those who suffered before I was able to attempt this, to all who may still suffer after, regardless of my success or failure.
I don’t expect forgiveness, but if I could have seen any other way to get this close, I would have taken it. Again, my sincere apologies.
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.
And I am no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes.
(Well, to be completely honest, I was no longer willing a long time ago, but this is the first real opportunity I’ve had to do something about it.)
While I’m discussing this, I’ll also go over my expected rules of engagement (probably in a terrible format, but I’m not military so too bad.)
Administration officials (not including Mr. Patel): they are targets, prioritized from highest-ranking to lowest
Secret Service: they are targets only if necessary, and to be incapacitated non-lethally if possible (aka, I hope they’re wearing body armor because center mass with shotguns messes up people who aren’t
Hotel Security: not targets if at all possible (aka unless they shoot at me)
Capitol Police: same as Hotel Security
National Guard: same as Hotel Security
Hotel Employees: not targets at all
Guests: not targets at all
In order to minimize casualties I will also be using buckshot rather than slugs (less penetration through walls)
I 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.
Rebuttals to objections:
Objection 1: As a Christian, you should turn the other cheek.
Rebuttal: Turning the other cheek is for when you yourself are oppressed. I’m not the person raped in a detention camp. I’m not the fisherman executed without trial. I’m not a schoolkid blown up or a child starved or a teenage girl abused by the many criminals in this administration.
Turning the other cheek when someone else is oppressed is not Christian behavior; it is complicity in the oppressor’s crimes.
Objection 2: This is not a convenient time for you to do this.
Rebuttal: I need whoever thinks this way to take a couple minutes and realize that the world isn’t about them. Do you think that when I see someone raped or murdered or abused, I should walk on by because it would be “inconvenient” for people who aren’t the victim?
This was the best timing and chance of success I could come up with.
Objection 3: You didn’t get them all.
Rebuttal: Gotta start somewhere.
Objection 4: As a half-black, half-white person, you shouldn’t be the one doing this.
Rebuttal: I don’t see anyone else picking up the slack
Objection 5: Yield unto Caesar what is Caesar’s.
Rebuttal: The United States of America are ruled by the law, not by any one or several people. In so far as representatives and judges do not follow the law, no one is required to yield them anything so unlawfully ordered.
I would also like to extend my appreciation to a great many people since I will not be likely to be able to talk with them again (unless the Secret Service is astoundingly incompetent.)
Thank you to my family, both personal and church, for your love over these 31 years.
Thank you to my friends, for your companionship over many years.
Thank you to my colleagues over many jobs, for your positivity and professionalism.
Thank you to my students for your enthusiasm and love of learning.
Thank you to the many acquaintances I’ve met, in person and online, for short interactions and long-term relationships, for your perspectives and inspiration.
Thank you all for everything.
Sincerely,
Cole “coldForce” “Friendly Federal Assassin” Allen
PS: Ok now that all the sappy stuff is done, what the hell is the Secret Service doing? Sorry, gonna rant a bit here and drop the formal tone.
Like, 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.
Like, the one thing that I immediately noticed walking into the hotel is the sense of arrogance.
I walk in with multiple weapons and not a single person there considers the possibility that I could be a threat.
The security at the event is all outside, focused on protestors and current arrivals, because apparently no one thought about what happens if someone checks in the day before.
Like, this level of incompetence is insane, and I very sincerely hope it’s corrected by the time this country gets actually competent leadership again.
Like, if I was an Iranian agent, instead of an American citizen, I could have brought a damn Ma Deuce in here and no one would have noticed shit.
Actually insane.
Oh and if anyone is curious how doing something like feels: it’s awful. I want to throw up; I want to cry for all the things I wanted to do and never will, for all the people whose trust this betrays; I experience rage thinking about everything this administration has done.
Can’t really recommend it! Stay in school, kids.
In the end, one officer, who was wearing a bullet-resistant vest, was shot and is expected to recover; no other injuries were reported. The interim Washington, D.C., police chief stated that Allen was taken to the hospital for a knee injury despite not being struck by gunfire.
Investigators believe he was staying at the hotel as a guest.
The two law enforcement officers who spoke to news agencies, stated that Allen worked for C2 Education, a tutoring firm in Torrance and received a “Teacher of the Month” award from the company in December 2024. According to Federal Election Commission records, Allen donated $25 to a Democratic Party PAC, ActBlue, for Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign in October 2024.
In his “manifesto,” rather than using any sort of “woke” language, Allen portrays himself as a Christian acting in defense of the defenseless, and implicitly questioning other Christians who look away as the government of the United States oppresses others in the name of Christianity.
Essentially, he evokes a common law “defense of others” defense, that any judge would allow to be argued in court. It’s a position not nearly as off base as JD Vance or Trump himself claiming that Trump’s war against Iran is justified by Catholic Just War doctrine.
When read in its entirety, the “manifesto” comes across as normie-pushed-over-the-edge rather than someone radicalized into extremism. Allen released something more akin to an apologia.