The man suspected of opening fire at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner on Saturday night worked as a teacher and video game developer from Southern California, according to public records.
Cole Tomas Allen, 31, who lives in the Los Angeles suburb of Torrance, has been identified by law enforcement as the armed man subdued near the dinner where President Trump and other officials had gathered, two sources familiar with the matter told.
A LinkedIn profile matching his name and photo described him as a part-time teacher at C2 Education, a test prep and tutoring company. C2 named Allen the company’s “teacher of the month” in December 2024, according to social media posts from the company. No one answered a phone number for C2 late Saturday evening.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Allen graduated from the California Institute of Technology in 2017 with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, and received a master’s degree in computer science from California State University-Dominguez Hills last year.
Allen donated $25 to Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign in October 2024, according to Federal Election Commission records.
