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 claimed to be 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,” his profile read.
A person named Cole Allen graduated from the California Institute of Technology in 2017 with an undergraduate degree, the university told the New York Times.
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.
He 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.”
C2 Education, a test-prep company based in Torrance, named Allen as “teacher of the month” in an Instagram post dated December 2024.
