The suspect arrested in the shooting at the White House Correspondents' Dinner has been identified by a law enforcement official as Cole Tomas Allen, 31, from the Los Angeles area who appears, based on social media profiles, to have a background in engineering, teaching and game development.
Mr Allen is reported to be a resident of Torrance, California, a coastal city in the South Bay region near Los Angeles.
Authorities believe he was a guest at the Washington Hilton, where the annual event was being held, although investigators have not yet established a motive, according to the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia.
Online profiles linked to Mr Allen indicate he studied mechanical engineering at the California Institute of Technology, graduating in 2017, and later earned a master’s degree in computer science from California State University, Dominguez Hills last year.
The California Institute of Technology confirmed that a person with that name graduated in 2017.
A LinkedIn profile describes him as a “mechanical engineer and computer scientist by degree, independent game developer by experience, teacher by birth”. It also indicates he worked as a part-time instructor for C2 Education, a tutoring service, and as a self-employed game developer.
A Facebook post suggests he was named “Teacher of the Month” by a local branch of the company in December 2024.
According to the profile, Mr Allen previously worked as a mechanical engineer at IJK Controls in South Pasadena and as a teaching assistant at Caltech. It also references participation in a robotics competition at Caltech in 2016.
The US Secret Service said the suspect was armed with a shotgun and was taken into custody after opening fire at an agent at the Washington Hilton, outside the ballroom hosting the event, which was attended by President Donald Trump, Melania Trump, Vice President JD Vance and several cabinet officials.
