(AFP) – The suspected attacker in a shooting that plunged a press gala attended by US President Donald Trump into chaos has been identified by news media as a 31-year-old mechanical engineer from California. Hours after gunshots rang outside the ballroom where the glitzy White House Correspondents’ Association dinner was being held on Saturday, Trump shared a photo of the suspect handcuffed and face down on the carpeted floor. The man with brown hair and a moustache was identified by multiple US news outlets, citing law enforcement sources, as Cole Tomas Allen, 31, from Torrance, California. US officials have not yet publicly confirmed the suspect’s identity.
A LinkedIn profile with the name “Cole Allen” showed a picture of a man which appeared to match the photo shared by Trump. On the social media profile, Allen said he was an engineer with a passion for game development, based in the Los Angeles Metropolitan Area. “Mechanical engineer and computer scientist by degree, independent game developer by experience, teacher by birth,” according to his profile, which noted that he had an undergraduate degree from the California Institute of Technology. A person named Cole T. Allen from Torrance graduated from Caltech in 2017 with a mechanical engineering degree, according to the school’s commencement ceremony program. He was part of the Caltech Christian Fellowship and Nerf Club, according to his profile.
Last year, Allen uploaded a picture wearing a graduation gown and cap, saying he was “done” with his computer science master’s degree from California State University Dominguez Hills. The name Cole Tomas Allen appeared in that university’s 2025 commencement program. Allen also posted about an indie game he developed called “Bohrdom,” described as a “skill-based, non-violent” fighting game “derived from a chemistry model that is itself loosely based on reality.” On his LinkedIn, he said he was also a part-time teacher at a tutoring company called C2 Education. The test-prep firm named Allen as “teacher of the month” in an Instagram post dated December 2024. In that post, a man with brown hair and a half-smile is pictured wearing a navy blue quarter-zip sweater, hands folded behind his back.
Trump told reporters that the suspect, who was detained at the scene, was a California resident and law enforcement agents were probing his home. The suspect is due to be arraigned in court on Monday on firearm and assault charges, officials said. Authorities said he was armed with a shotgun, a handgun and multiple knives, and was not known to Washington’s Metropolitan Police Department. “My impression is he was a lone wolf,” Trump said, adding that the suspect’s motivation was not yet clear but he believed the gunman was “sick.”
FBI tactical agents were seen entering a gabled two-story residence in Torrance associated with the suspect on Saturday evening, according to an AFP photographer. The brown house in the southwestern Los Angeles suburb was cordoned off, glowing red and blue under flashing police lights. A neighbor told CNN that he saw Allen at the property “a couple of days ago.” According to NBC News, Allen attended the Pacific Lutheran High School in the LA suburbs and was a member of the volleyball team. A former teammate described him as “borderline genius” and “super stable.” “Other people study hard. He didn’t have to study. It would just come to him. He was really, really smart,” the ex-teammate told NBC. He was also described as a “gentle person.”
Allen was registered to vote with no party preference, the Los Angeles Times reported. According to Federal Election Commission records seen by AFP, a person named Cole Allen, identified as a teacher at C2 Education from Torrance, donated $25 to a group raising funds for Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign.
© 2024 AFP
