{"id":19588,"date":"2026-04-26T07:20:34","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T07:20:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/tutor-game-developer-nasa-fellow-who-is-white-house-dinner-shooting-suspect-cole-tomas-allen\/"},"modified":"2026-04-26T07:20:34","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T07:20:34","slug":"tutor-game-developer-nasa-fellow-who-is-white-house-dinner-shooting-suspect-cole-tomas-allen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/tutor-game-developer-nasa-fellow-who-is-white-house-dinner-shooting-suspect-cole-tomas-allen\/","title":{"rendered":"Tutor, game developer, NASA fellow: Who is White House dinner shooting suspect Cole Tomas Allen"},"content":{"rendered":"
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White House shooting suspect: <\/strong>The suspect arrested in connection with the <\/span>shooting at the White House press dinner on Saturday has been identified. Cole Tomas Allen is a 31-year-old tutor and software developer from Torrance, California, officials said. Investigators are now looking into his background and possible motive.<\/p>\n

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<\/source><\/picture><\/div>
Cole Tomas Allen reportedly fired five to eight gunshots at the White House media gala on Saturday. (Cole Allen\/Linkedin; Donald Trump\/Truth Social )<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Allen allegedly opened fire at the Washington DC event, forcing the evacuation of attendees, including US President Donald Trump. He attempted to dash past security at the <\/span>Washington Hilton before being taken down by the US Secret Service.<\/p>\n

An officer was shot at close range but survived due to body armour. Trump, later in a press conference, said the suspect was armed with multiple weapons and is now in custody. He is expected to be formally charged on Monday.<\/p>\n

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Who is Cole Tomas Allen?<\/span><\/h2>\n

Cole Allen is a graduate of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), where he earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering in 2017, as per his online profiles. He later completed a master’s degree in computer science from California State University, Dominguez Hills in 2025, according to a LinkedIn profile in his name.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Caltech confirmed that a person with that name graduated in 2017.<\/span><\/p>\n

His profile describes him as a mechanical engineer and computer scientist by education, a game developer by experience, and a teacher by profession.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Work as tutor and educator<\/span><\/h2>\n
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Allen reportedly worked for several years as a part-time teacher with C2 Education, a private tutoring and college admissions preparation company. A social media post from the company in 2024 listed him as “Teacher of the Month” at its Torrance office.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Facebook posts linked to him also show involvement in tutoring high school students preparing for college entrance exams.<\/span><\/p>\n

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A game developer and NASA fellow<\/span><\/h2>\n

Allen also worked as an independent game developer, according to his online resume. He is said to have created a video game on the Steam platform focused on molecular chemistry. Another project listed under his name was a planned “top-down shooter” style game set in space.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Before his tutoring work, he reportedly worked for about a year as a mechanical engineer at IJK Controls in South Pasadena. He also served as a teaching assistant at Caltech.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2014, Allen took part in a Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship at <\/span>NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Online activity<\/span><\/h2>\n

His online profile mentions that he participated in a Christian student fellowship and a campus group that used Nerf-style games. It also includes references to a robotics competition project during his time at Caltech.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

News :<\/span>Migrant acquitted in first trial over US border military zones<\/span><\/a><\/div>

A local television interview from his college years showed him working on a prototype emergency braking system for wheelchairs.<\/span><\/p>\n

Federal campaign finance records show he made a small donation in 2024 to a political action committee supporting <\/span>Kamala Harris.<\/p>\n

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White House event shooting details<\/span><\/h2>\n

Authorities say Allen was attending the <\/span>White House Correspondents’ Dinner at the Washington Hilton hotel when the shooting took place. He was reportedly a guest at the venue.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The <\/span>Secret Service said he was armed with a shotgun and opened fire at an agent near the ballroom area of the hotel. He was taken into custody after the incident.<\/p>\n

The event was attended by Donald Trump, US first lady <\/span>Melania Trump, vice president JD Vance, and several cabinet members.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Tutor, game developer, NASA fellow: Who is White House dinner shooting suspect Cole Tomas Allen<\/sub><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

White House shooting suspect: The suspect arrested in connection with the shooting at the White House press dinner on Saturday has been identified. Cole Tomas Allen is a 31-year-old tutor and software developer from Torrance, California, officials said. Investigators are now looking into his background and possible motive. Cole Tomas Allen reportedly fired five to…<\/p>\n

Read More “Tutor, game developer, NASA fellow: Who is White House dinner shooting suspect Cole Tomas Allen”<\/span> »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19589,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19588\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}