In connection with the White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooting on Sunday a suspect has been arrested.
The suspect has been identified by the law enforcement officials as Cole Tomas Allen. He is from Torrance, California and a Los Angeles area resident.
Officials believe that the suspect is approximately 31 years old. It also appears that he was a guest at the Washington Hilton Hotel.
A motive for the attack has not been determined yet.
Information about him has been collected from his social media profiles. It has been confirmed that Allen is a Caltech graduate and has worked as a part-time teacher. He was also an independent game developer.
Facebook posts associated with him were found which indicate that he was named “Teacher of the Month” back in December 2024. He was named by the Torrance office of C2 Education.
Torrance Office is a nationwide test preparation service and a private tutoring service for students going to college.
The suspect also had a LinkedIn profile where he described himself as a computer engineer by degree and a mechanical engineer, by experience a independent game developer and a teacher by birth.
It states that he earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the California Institute of Technology in 2017 and later completed a master’s degree in computer science from California State University, Dominguez Hills in 2025.
Caltech confirmed that a person with that name graduated in 2017.
His listed work experience includes several years as a part-time teacher with C2 Education and self-employment as a game developer.
He also previously worked for about a year as a mechanical engineer at IJK Controls in South Pasadena and served as a teaching assistant at Caltech.
A profile reference also mentions a local newspaper article about a robotics competition his team won at Caltech in 2016.
Under “Causes,” his profile lists only “Science and Technology.”
Also read: Trump posts photos of White House correspondents’ dinner suspect
