The suspect arrested for the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner is identified as Cole Tomas Allen, a 31-year-old man from Torrance, California. He is reported to be a Caltech graduate, working part-time as a teacher and game developer. The shooting occurred at the Washington Hilton hotel, where the event was taking place, but no motive for the shooting has been found.
Allen was believed to have been a guest at the hotel during the incident, which involved him firing a shotgun at a Secret Service agent. He has received recognition as “Teacher of the Month” in December 2024 from C2 Education, a tutoring service. His LinkedIn profile states he has a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Caltech, graduating in 2017, and a master’s in computer science from California State University at Dominguez Hills, which he completed in 2025.
His work experience includes being a part-time teacher for C2 Education, a self-employed game developer, and a mechanical engineer for IJK Controls. A local newspaper article on his profile highlights a robotics competition his team won at Caltech in 2016. His profile indicates an interest in “Science and Technology. “
With information from Reuters
