What We Know About the White House Correspondents’ Dinner Suspected Shooter
Cole Tomas Allen has been identified as the suspected gunman who opened fire outside the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday, an incident that forced the immediate evacuation of President Donald Trump.
The 31-year-old suspect traveled by train from Los Angeles—where he lived and worked as an educator in Torrance—to Chicago, before continuing to Washington, D.C., on Friday. Upon arrival, he checked into the Washington Hilton Hotel, the venue hosting the annual dinner.
In the wake of the shooting, details regarding Allen’s background have surfaced. He earned a degree in mechanical engineering from the California Institute of Technology in 2017 and later completed a master’s in computer science at California State University, Dominguez Hills, in 2025. A former high school classmate described him as a “borderline genius” who was “super stable” and possessed an innate ability to grasp complex subjects without the need for rigorous study.
While at CalTech, Allen gained local attention in 2017 for his work on a prototype emergency brake for wheelchairs. Beyond his academic pursuits, his LinkedIn profile indicates he worked as an educator at a tutoring firm and was a self-employed video game developer with titles available on the Steam marketplace.
Law enforcement officials confirmed that Allen legally purchased the shotgun used in the attack in August 2025, in addition to another firearm acquired in 2023. Following his arrest, authorities obtained a search warrant for his Los Angeles residence and seized his cellphone. While Allen has not cooperated with investigators, those who knew him are currently providing information to authorities.
Federal campaign records indicate that Allen donated $25 to an ActBlue PAC associated with Kamala Harris’ 2024 presidential campaign. However, investigators are still working to determine the motive behind the “lone wolf” attack on members of the Trump administration.
“We’re still looking to try to understand a motive. From our preliminary investigation, it does appear the suspect was targeting members of the administration,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told CNN. “We don’t have specifics yet about particular members of the administration, except that we do understand that that was his goal and his target.”
Blanche further noted that Allen was carrying knives at the time of the incident. The suspect is scheduled to appear in federal court on Monday, where he faces charges of using a firearm during a crime of violence and assaulting a federal officer with a dangerous weapon, with additional charges expected.
