WHCD shooter chose buckshot over slugs explicitly to 'minimize civilian casualties' — wrote the engineering rationale into his manifesto

The Shooter Ran a Caltech-Grade Harm-Reduction Calculation on His Own Attack

Cole Allen had a Caltech mechanical engineering degree. He used it. Inside his manifesto, between the political indictment and the religious philosophy, sits a passage of pure engineering — a rationale for why he picked one type of shotgun ammunition over another.

The Calculation

"In order to minimize casualties, I will also be using buckshot rather than slugs (less penetration through walls)." Buckshot disperses on contact and stops at the first solid surface. Slugs drive through. Allen's framing was that buckshot meant any rounds that missed would not pass through walls into adjacent hotel rooms — and any over-penetration into bystanders would be reduced.

The Rules of Engagement

Allen wrote a literal hierarchy of who was and wasn't fair game:

- Trump administration officials (excluding Patel): targets, prioritized highest to lowest

- Hotel staff and dinner guests: not targets

- Secret Service, Capitol Police, and hotel security: not targets unless they shot first

- National Guard: not targets unless they shot first

- Bystanders: he "would still go through most everyone" if forced, but "really hope it doesn't come to that"

The Cold Engineering

This is what unsettles trained analysts more than the political content. A deranged shooter does not run wall-penetration math on his own ammunition. Allen did. The calculation is the most concrete evidence in the document that the attack was not a snap decision — it was a design.