The US secret services subdued and arrested this Saturday a man who entered armed and shot at the hotel where the annual dinner of the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) was taking place. event attended by President Donald Trump, the first lady and members of the US Government.
The detainee, according to local and international media, was identified as Cole Tomas Allen, a 31-year-old man living in Torrance, in the state of California (USA), who worked as a teacher.
Trump himself shared images of the arrested man on his social network Truth Social, including a photograph in which he is seen handcuffed on the hotel floor.
He also shared video images from the facility’s security cameras. In the footage, in black and white and of poor quality, you can see the man running at full speed at the security access control and several members of the Secret Service drawing their weapons and shooting. However, none of the messages have attached text that identifies the detainee.
Trump explained shortly after the incident, in a press conference at the White House, that the attacker was a “crazy” and a “lone wolf.” that he did not breach the security perimeter within which the president dined accompanied by the first lady, Melania, the vice president, JD Vance, and hundreds of journalists and members of the world of Washington politics.
At the same press conference at the White House, Trump himself assured that the man shot one of the agents, but that he is fine because the bullet hit his bulletproof vest.
Although there is no official confirmation of his identity in the available fragments, reports indicate that he was detained by the Secret Service after the incident.
Furthermore, both Trump, who called him a “lone wolf” and other authorities such as the mayor of the District of Columbia, Muriel Bowser, and the police chief of this district, Jeffery Carroll, agree that he is the only attacker: “So far, it seems that he is a solitary actor,” they said at a press conference.
Who is Cole Allen?
Although the only official details are that the suspect was a 31-year-old from Torrance, Several media outlets, after publishing his identity, assured that He is a mechanical and computer engineer, with experience in video games and who worked as a teacher at the exam preparation company C2 Education, according to his social network account, LinkedIn.
The president of the Asian American Civic Trust, Dylan Wakayama, detailed to the Los Angeles Times that Allen gave private lessons to several high school students of this non-profit organization, who defined him as a “very intelligent person, with great mastery of biology, mathematics and science”, as well as “a kind and calm person.”
He studied at the California Institute of Technology (CalTech), a private university located in Pasadena, Mechanical Engineering, and then worked as a software developer for an education application and as a teacher since 2020according to excerpts from his LinkedIn profile published on social networks and by various media.
In addition, he has a master’s degree in computer science from California State University in 2025, he did a summer internship when he was not yet graduated at NASA and, in addition to his work as a teacher, he defines himself as an “independent video game developer.”
At the moment, the suspect, who was not injured but was taken to a hospital, has been charged with two serious crimes, related to the possession of firearms and assault, according to the federal prosecutor for the District of Columbia, Jeanine Pirro, who added that “this individual had the intention of causing as much damage as possible.”