About ten minutes before Saturday’s attack, Cole Tomas Allen, the accused shooter at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, texted a lengthy, deranged manifesto to his relatives, The New York Post first reported.
Cole ‘coldForce’ ‘Friendly Federal Assassin’ Allen” signed the 1,052-word letter, according to the outlet. It detailed his “rules of engagement” for the shooting and declared that he felt it was his moral obligation to target administration officials.
Read more: Cole Tomas Allen: ‘Teacher of the Month’ photo surfaces
What did the manifesto say?
Apologies to family and friends
The document begins with a series of apologies addressed to family members, colleagues, and bystanders of the White House Correspondents’ Dinner (WHCD). It then shifts into a political justification, stating dissatisfaction with U.S. leadership and expressing a belief that elected representatives should reflect the public’s wishes.
Allen wrote, “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.”
Why is he doing it?
Allen addresses the subject of why he decided to carry out the shooting at WHCD after offering an apology to everyone he thinks appropriate.
He wrote, “I am no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes.”
While naming President Donald Trump, the manifesto criticized a “pedophile” and a “rapist”, and wrote, “I am a citizen of the United States of America. What my representatives do reflects on me.”
He added, “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.)”
Rules of Engagement
The writings further outline what appear to be “rules of engagement,” referencing different groups present at the event and indicating how they would be treated by Allen if they engage with him during his “mission.”
To minimize the casualties, Allen named the highest-ranking administration officials. He wrote, “Administration officials (not including Mr. Patel): they are targets, prioritized from highest-ranking to lowest.”
He said that he would go through attendees if necessary, citing the fact that most “chose to attend a speech by a pedophile, rapist, and traitor, and are thus complicit,” but hoped it would not come to that.
Secret Service agents were targets “only if necessary” and to be incapacitated non-lethally, if engaged. Hotel security and other low-level security services were categorized as “non-targets” as long as they did not fire at Allen.
Read more: Cole Tomas Allen family: Here’s all we know about WH dinner shooting suspect
Objection and rebuttal
The manifesto also includes an “objection” and “rebuttal” portion, in which Allen engages in a back-and-forth moral dilemma with himself to defend what’s was going to come next.
Allen replied to the objection of the Christian precept of “turning the other cheek,” and wrote, “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.”
He dismissed worries about timing by stating that crimes cannot be disregarded for convenience and that the world “isn’t about” the objector. He wrote, “Gotta start somewhere,” in response to not “getting them all.”
Allen wrote about his own identity as a half-Black, half-White person, “I don’t see anyone else picking up the slack.”
He responded to the biblical “yield unto Caesar” by saying, “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.”
Complaint about the security system at WHCD
The manifesto then transitions into a rant as Allen talks about the lack of security at such a high-profile event.
He wrote, “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.”
He added, “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.”
Allen harshly condemned the U.S. Secret Service, calling the apparent lack of security “insane” incompetence stemming from arrogance.
Allen wrote, “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.”
How he feels before shooting at the WHCD?
He finished the manifesto with his state before he opened fire at the ballroom. He wrote, “If anyone is curious is 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.”
The California “Teacher of the Month” then tells his students, “Can’t really recommend it! Stay in school, kids.”
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