A 31-year-old engineer and the computer scientist was recognized by media reports and President Donald Trump as the suspected shooter at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday night.
Cole Tomas Allen, of Torrance, California, was arrested following the shooting at the Washington Hilton, where Trump was scheduled to deliver a speech to an auditorium packed with reporters, cabinet officials and Hilton employees. Allen’s name surfaced in media reports shortly before Trump posted two photos of the suspect following his arrest. The man in the photos Trump posted matches Allen’s photos.
In a surprising turn of events, several shots were heard outside the hall, after which Trump and Vice President JD Vance they were immediately chased off the stage by the United States Secret Service. Immediately after the shooting, it looked briefly as if the event would go on—Trump posted “LET THE SHOW GO ON” on Social Reality—but the event was called off.
According to the Metropolitan Police Department, the suspect “charged” a Secret Service checkpoint at the Hilton hotel, and was apprehended by agents. Acting MPD Chief Jeffery Carroll said the suspect was carrying “a shotgun, a handgun, and multiple knives.”
At a White House press conference following the shooting, Trump said a US Secret Service agent was shot but was saved from serious injury by his bulletproof vest. Trump said the agent, who was not named, was “doing great” and “in good shape.” No other injuries were immediately reported.
The suspect was later transported to a local hospital “to be evaluated,” according to Carroll, who said he appeared to be “just an actor.”
As Trump’s press conference began Saturday night, he posted a picture on his Social Reality account appearing to show the suspected shooter lying on the ground, with his hands cuffed behind his back, and a heating blanket covering his lower body.
A WIRE review of public databases shows little online presence associated with the Allen name. According to his LinkedIn profile, he graduated from Caltech in 2017 with a degree in mechanical engineering and from California State University Dominguez Hills in 2025 with a master’s degree in computer science. A photo of Allen appearing on the Caltech website specifies he as a member of the school’s 72nd Mechanical Engineering class, described by the school as a “two-semester engineering design lab” to build robots and self-driving cars. His name is also listed in Dominguez Hills’ 2025 graduation program. A search of a public facial recognition database returns just two photos, both of him as an undergraduate.
According to the suspect’s LinkedIn profile, he has been employed part-time since March 2020 at C2 Education, a private company that helps students prepare for the SAT and ACT exams. In December 2024, C2 Education said in posts on LinkedIn and Facebook that he was the “Best Teacher of the Month for December” of the company.
Since 2018, the suspected shooter has identified himself on his LinkedIn profile as a “self-employed” indie game developer. He seems to have released an “atomic fighting game” called Bohrdom on Steam in 2018. The game was announced using the account YouTube and X which seemed to have little following. The game’s trailer caption describes it as “a non-violent, skill-based, asymmetric fighting game based on a chemistry model that itself is loosely based on reality.”
C2 Education did not immediately respond to requests for comment. When reached for comment, the Metropolitan Police Department referred WIRED to a video of his press conference.
