The suspect in a shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner told law enforcement authorities after his arrest that his target was officials from the Trump administration, CBS News reported on Saturday, citing sources.
The suspect, identified as Cole Tomas Allen, did not specify that he was targeting US President Donald Trump but said his target was administration officials, the report said.
Suspect is a teacher
Allen, 31, is from California and works as a teacher at a tutoring service provider. He was a guest at the Washington Hilton, where the dinner was held, and had booked a room at the hotel.
Separately, CNN reported that Allen is also a video game developer and lives in Torrance, a suburb of Los Angeles.
According to publicly available information cited in the reports, Allen graduated from the California Institute of Technology in 2017 with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and obtained a master’s degree in computer science last year from California State University, Dominguez Hills.
Records from the Federal Election Commission show that Allen donated $25 to the 2024 presidential campaign of then-US vice-president Kamala Harris in October 2024.
- The suspect in the White House Correspondents' Association dinner shooting identified as Cole Tomas Allen targeted Trump administration officials, not specifically President Trump.
- Allen, 31, from California, works as a teacher at a tutoring service and was staying at the Washington Hilton during the event.
- He is also a video game developer residing in Torrance, Los Angeles suburb.
- Allen graduated from Caltech with a mechanical engineering degree in 2017 and earned a master's in computer science from California State University, Dominguez Hills, in 2023.
- He donated $25 to Kamala Harris’s 2024 presidential campaign in October 2024, according to FEC records.
