The person arrested in the shooting at the White House Correspondents' Dinner has been identified as Cole Tomas Allen, a 31-year-old from Torrance, California, according to a law enforcement official.
From information published on social media, Allen appears to have graduated from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and worked as a part-time teacher and independent computer game developer.
Authorities said Allen lives in Torrance, a coastal city in the South Bay area near Los Angeles and Santa Monica Bay.
The Washington police chief said investigators believe the suspect was a guest at the Washington Hilton Hotel, where the annual correspondents' dinner was being held, but a motive for the attack has not yet been determined.
Facebook posts related to Allen show that he was named “Teacher of the Month” in December 2024 by the Torrance office of C2 Education, a private network that provides test prep and tutoring for college-bound students.
A LinkedIn profile under his name describes him as "a mechanical engineer and computer scientist by degree, an independent game developer by experience, and a teacher by nature."
According to this profile, he received a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from Caltech in 2017 and a master's degree in computer science from California State University at Dominguez Hills in 2025. Caltech itself confirmed that a person with this name graduated there in 2017.
In terms of work experience, Allen has worked for several years as a part-time teacher at C2 Education and as an independent game developer, while previously he was a mechanical engineer at IJK Controls in South Pasadena and a teaching assistant at Caltech.
The US Secret Service said the suspect was armed with a shotgun and was arrested after opening fire on a Secret Service agent at the Washington Hilton Hotel, outside the event room attended by Donald Trump, Melania Trump, Vice President JD Vance and several cabinet members.
