WASHINGTON: Social media profiles and publicly available records that appear to match the California man arrested on Saturday in connection with the shooting incident at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner indicate that he is a highly educated tutor and amateur video game developer.
A May 2025 profile photograph of Cole Tomas Allen, a resident of Torrance, California, appears to correspond with the image of the alleged attacker being taken into custody, which was shared on Saturday night by US President Donald Trump on social media.
According to AP, the LinkedIn photograph shows Allen wearing a graduation cap and gown after completing a master’s degree in computer science from California State University-Dominguez Hills.
Allen, aged 31, also holds a bachelor’s degree awarded in 2017 in mechanical engineering from the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
During his time at the institute, he reportedly participated in a Christian student fellowship and was involved in a campus group known for recreational activities that included Nerf gun battles.
An interview broadcast by a local ABC affiliate in Los Angeles during Allen’s final year of undergraduate study featured him discussing emerging technologies designed to assist elderly individuals.
In that segment, he had presented a prototype for an innovative emergency braking system intended for wheelchairs.
According to his online résumé, Allen has spent the past six years employed at C2 Education, an organisation providing admissions guidance and test preparation services for prospective college students.
A 2024 Facebook post by the company identified him as its “teacher of the month”. The organisation has not yet responded to requests for comment. Allen has also been active in software development and gaming projects.
He reportedly created a video game available on the Steam platform, centred around molecular chemistry. In addition, posts attributed to him describe ongoing work on a “top-down shooter” style combat game set in a science fiction, outer space environment.
