Suspected gunman at White House press dinner named

The suspected gunman in the shooting at the White House correspondents’ dinner that has roiled Washington has been identified as Cole Tomas Allen, a 31-year-old man from southern California.

Allen, of Torrance, a suburb of Los Angeles, has no record of criminal charges or a civil court history in Los Angeles county, according to a records search.

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 Donald 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. The profile also states Allen achieved a masters in computer science from California State University, Dominguez Hills, last year.

Video posted to the Truth Social platform by the president on Saturday evening showed surveillance footage of a man sprinting through a Secret Service checkpoint near the main magnetometer metal detector screening area just outside the main ballroom of the Washington Hilton, the venue for the event. Agents can be seen drawing weapons and opening fire as he runs past. Trump also posted a picture of a shirtless man then lying on the floor as if apprehended.

Trump rushed off stage at White House correspondents' dinner as gunshots heard

Jeffery Carroll, the interim police chief for the city’s metropolitan police department, told reporters at a press conference that the suspect was tackled to the ground by law enforcement officers. Carroll added that the suspect was not hit by gunfire but did exchange shots with an officer who was struck while wearing a bulletproof vest. The officer had been released from hospital on Sunday morning.

Muriel Bowser, the mayor of Washington DC, said at a press conference the suspect was in custody and there was no reason to believe that anyone else was involved in the incident.

Carroll said investigators believed the suspect was armed with a shotgun, a handgun and knives. He also said the suspect was believed to have been a guest at the hotel and was involved in an altercation as he tried to get into the event.

“We do believe he was a guest here at the hotel. We have secured a room here in the hotel, and again, we’ll go through the appropriate procedures to determine what was inside there,” Carroll said.

Jeanine Pirro, the US attorney for the District of Columbia, the area’s chief prosecutor, said the defendant was being charged with two counts, would be arraigned on Monday and probably face further charges.

“It is clear, based upon what we know so far, this individual was intent on doing as much harm and as much damage as he could,” Pirro said.

Trump said authorities were searching the suspect’s home in California. No clear motive for the apparent attack has yet emerged.

He is thought to have been acting alone. Todd Blanche, the acting US attorney general, it appeared the suspect was targeting the Trump administration, “likely including the president”.

During a press conference at the White House in the aftermath of the attack, Trump described the suspect as a “lone wolf whack job” who “looked evil” and would spend “life in prison”.

Early reports suggest those who had known Allen in his younger years were surprised to discover he was the suspect.

A former high school volleyball teammate at Pacific Lutheran high school in Gardena, California, told NBC News his experience was that Allen was a “borderline genius” and “super stable”.

“Other people study hard,” said the former teammate, who did not want to be named. “He didn’t have to study. It would just come to him. He was really, really smart.”

He said Allen had many talents that expanded beyond coding and computers, which he was especially interested in, including writing. He said Allen seemed to be well-versed in a number of subjects.

“Across the board, he was really knowledgeable, really curious,” the ex-teammate said.

The man added: “He was probably the most gentle person on the team, which makes it even more shocking that he did this.”

According to his LinkedIn page, Allen graduated from the California Institute of Technology, a college in Pasadena, California – often known as Caltech – in 2017 with a degree in mechanical engineering. The private university has confirmed it had a student on its roll named Cole Allen who graduated that same year.

During his final year at the university he worked as a teaching assistant and was part of the Caltech Christian Fellowship, and the Caltech Nerf Club. He also won an internal robotics competition with teammates from his course.

After graduating, he worked as a mechanical engineer for a year, before starting a career as an independent video game developer under the name Ice-Forged Games.

He has one game listed on the Steam game platform, named Bohrdom, which was released in 2018. It is described as a “non-violent asymmetrical fighting game” loosely based on chemistry, in which players can either take the role of an electron attempting to escape an atom, or play as the nucleus trying to stop electrons from escaping.

He went on to teach part-time, at a company dedicated to helping high school students get into college, according to the LinkedIn profile.

A social media post by C2 Education, a tutoring and test prep firm in Torrence, named Allen, as teacher of the month in 2024.

One of his former students in interviewed on US television described him as “a pretty normal guy”, who was “a little quirky” but otherwise an “ordinary person”.

“I don’t know, you’d never expect it coming from this guy,” he said.