Pirro won't say if gunman hit Secret Service: 'The agent did not shoot himself'
U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro looks on while announcing charges in connection with an international car theft ring during a press conference at the Justice Department in Washington, D.C., U.S., April 22, 2026. REUTERS/Nathan Howard

Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, declined to definitively say that a gunman at the White House Correspondents' Dinner shot a Secret Service agent.

During a Thursday interview on Fox News, anchor Dana Perino revealed that the network's sources were told that the gunman, Cole Allen, shot an agent when he discharged his shotgun at the Washington D.C. Hilton on Saturday.

"Do you know if Cole Allen fired it or if it discharged accidentally?" Pirro asked.

"I don't think there's any question but that Cole Allen was intending to fire that Mossberg," Pirro replied. "And what we do know is that he fired off that 12-gauge shotgun one time. The cartridge was still in the weapon. He fired that gun in the direction of the Secret Service officer."

The U.S. attorney noted that one of the Secret Service officers fired his weapon five times.

"We know it based on the fact that we found five areas consistent with being hit by a 9mm," she said. "So the Secret Service agent did not shoot himself. And you've got Cole Allen going there, shooting off one round. And I don't think there's any question of what happened here."

"We're waiting for the official ballistics test, but at the same time, we filed papers in court this morning for the detention hearing today, indicating that this defendant was calculated, he was premeditated, he had every intention of killing the president and anyone who got in his way."