The man suspected of opening fire on officers at White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in Washington, D.C., on Saturday is a 31-year-old man from Southern California, authorities said.
The suspect was identified as Cole Thomas Allen of Torrance, a federal official familiar with the matter told NBC News.
Allen was armed with a shotgun, a handgun and several knives when he rushed through a security checkpoint and ran toward the ballroom where the dinner was being held, said Jeff Carroll, acting police chief of the Metropolitan Police Department.
He exchanged gunfire with law enforcement and was tackled to the ground, Carroll said.
The suspect was not injured, while a Secret Service officer was hit in his body armor but was expected to survive, authorities said. The officer was released from a local hospital after the shooting, a source said Sunday morning.
Allen’s motivations for Saturday’s dinner attack the first in the presence of President Donald Trump during his term – are not clear. Authorities said he had no criminal record and was not on the radar of law enforcement in Washington, DC.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Allen graduated from the California Institute of Technology, a prestigious private research university in Pasadena, California, in 2017 with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering. The school, commonly known as Caltech, confirmed that it has the record of a student named Cole Allen who graduated in 2017.
The LinkedIn profile states that he received his Master of Science in Computer Science from California State University, Dominguez Hills in May 2025.
After graduating from Caltech, Allen worked for a year as a mechanical engineer, before becoming an independent video game developer and later also a part-time teacher at a company dedicated to helping high school students get into college, according to the LinkedIn profile.
A former high school volleyball teammate described Allen as a “borderline genius” and “super stable.”
Allen attended Pacific Lutheran High School in Gardena, Calif., where he was known for his curiosity and intellect, the former teammate told NBC News.
“Other people study hard,” said the former teammate, who spoke on condition of anonymity out of concern it could affect his career. “He didn’t need to study. It just came to him. He was really, really smart.”
The former teammate said Allen was particularly interested in coding and computers, but was also a very good writer and seemed knowledgeable on a number of subjects.
“Overall, he was really knowledgeable, really curious,” the former teammate said.
The teammate said they lost contact with Allen once he left for Caltech, but said he was surprised he was the suspect in Saturday’s attack.
“He was probably the sweetest person on the team, which makes it even more shocking that he did this,” the former teammate said.
Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C., said the suspect will be charged with two counts of using a firearm during a crime of violence and a second felony count of assault on a federal officer using a dangerous weapon. She added that “many more charges” are expected to be filed.
On Saturday evening local time, the FBI and Secret Service were at a home believed to be associated with Allen in Torrance, a city of about 140,000 in California’s South Bay, about 15 miles southwest of downtown Los Angeles.
The FBI was preparing to execute a search warrant related to the dinner incident, said Bill Essayli, first assistant U.S. attorney for the Central District of California.
Saturday’s shooting shook attendees at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, an annual event attended by the Washington press, presidential administration staff and celebrities.
Trump had attended the dinner before he became president, but he skipped it throughout his first term. Saturday was his first time attending as president, and he was accompanied by first lady Melania Trump when the shots rang out.
They and others were seated at the head of the ballroom when video captured what sounded like at least five loud bangs before armed officers rushed in and took away the president, first lady, Vice President J.D. Vance and others while the other attendees remained.
“I heard a noise and I kind of thought it was a tray. I thought it was a tray falling,” Trump said from the White House briefing room Saturday evening after the shooting.
“Melania was very aware, I think, of what had happened,” the president said. “I think she knew immediately what had happened. She was like, ‘That’s a bad noise.'”
Pirro said the suspect is expected to be arraigned Monday in federal court.
