The man who opened fire outside the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner on Saturday night has been identified as Cole Tomas Allen, a 31-year-old educator and engineer from Torrance, California.
Before any information about the shooter had been released, we reported on the theories about the incident on social media, including how the #staged hashtag was trending.
By Sunday afternoon, federal investigators had pieced together a portrait of a heavily armed man who traveled across the country by train, checked into the Washington Hilton a day before the event, and rushed a Secret Service checkpoint at 8:36 p.m. while President Donald Trump, First Lady Melania Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and members of the Cabinet were inside the ballroom.
Allen never made it into the room. According to acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, he “barely got past the perimeter” before Secret Service agents tackled him. He fired at least two shots, and law enforcement returned fire. One Secret Service officer was struck but was wearing a bullet-resistant vest and is expected to recover.
Allen himself was not hit by any bullets but was hospitalized for evaluation. He is reportedly not cooperating with investigators.
What He Was Carrying
When Allen charged the magnetometer area outside the ballroom, he was armed with a shotgun, a semi-automatic handgun, and multiple knives. The shotgun was purchased legally in California in August 2025. The handgun was purchased in October 2023.
Both were stored, according to his sister, at their parents’ home in Torrance — without their knowledge. Family members told the FBI that Allen trained regularly at a shooting range.
CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer, who was just feet from the gunman when shots rang out, described the weapon as “a very serious weapon” and said he heard at least six rounds before officers tackled the shooter.
Other reporters inside the ballroom described the sound of three to four successive shots, the smell of gunpowder, and the immediate evacuation of Trump and other officials by Secret Service agents who ‘threw the president to the ground’ less than a foot from mentalist Oz Pearlman, who had been performing for him moments before.
(Reporting from major news sources states that Secret Service officers “threw President Trump to the ground,” but clear video of the scene shown on MeidasTouch Saturday morning, showed Trump falling as they were rushing him out of the room. The officers and a woman wearing a ball gown helped Trump up before they exited the ballroom.)
Whether the President was ‘thrown down’ by the Secret Service or fell on his own doesn’t matter. However, we prefer to be as truthful and accurate as possible, even if a statement we make differs from what major news outlets report. Watch the 20-second clip below and decide for yourself.
This video starts at 2:02 and ends at 2:22—the 20-second clip of the moment President Trump fell.
Who is Cole Allen?
Allen graduated from Caltech in 2017 with a degree in mechanical engineering. He later earned a master’s in computer science from California State University, Dominguez Hills, in 2025. He worked as an engineer before transitioning to part-time teaching and independent video game development. One of his former professors described him as soft-spoken, polite, and a strong student.
In 2024, federal campaign finance records show Allen donated $25 to ActBlue in support of Kamala Harris. His sister told investigators he had attended a “No Kings” protest in California. She had been involved with a group called The Wide Awakes — a network of activists named after the 1860s abolitionist youth movement.
She also told the FBI he had a “tendency to make radical statements” and frequently spoke about doing “something” to fix what he saw as wrong with the world.
The Manifesto
Before the attack, Allen sent writings to family members — what officials are calling a manifesto. His brother, who received the document, contacted police in New London, Connecticut.
The Trump administration has given conflicting timelines about exactly when that call was made and what warning, if any, made it to federal agencies before Allen reached the checkpoint.
Portions of the manifesto, obtained by the New York Post and being reviewed by the FBI, frame the violence in explicitly moral and political terms.
In one passage, Allen reportedly wrote that turning the other cheek “is for when you yourself are oppressed,” and listed examples of people he believed could not turn the other cheek: a person raped in a detention camp, a fisherman executed without trial, a schoolchild blown up, a starved child, a teenage girl abused by what he called “the many criminals in this administration.”
He wrote that staying silent while others are oppressed is “complicity in the oppressor’s crimes,” and declared he was “no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes.” The document referred to its author as a “Friendly Federal Assassin” and reportedly listed administration officials in order of rank.
According to a law enforcement source cited by NewsNation, the manifesto specifically stated that Allen was not targeting law enforcement.
What Comes Next
U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro announced Allen will be charged with using a firearm during a crime of violence and assault on a federal officer with a dangerous weapon. He is expected to be arraigned Monday.
Blanche said additional charges, potentially including attempted assassination of the president, remain on the table as investigators piece together motive and premeditation. The FBI has searched both Allen’s hotel room and his home in Torrance, and has obtained search warrants for his electronic devices.
The House Oversight Committee has requested a briefing from the Secret Service. The White House Correspondents’ Association said its board will meet to assess the incident and determine how to proceed.
Trump used the shooting as an argument for the new White House ballroom he has been pushing to build, telling reporters the Hilton “was not a particularly secure building.”
Political violence directed at journalists, lawmakers, and presidents has been a steady feature of American life for years now — including the 2024 attempt on Trump’s life in Butler, Pennsylvania, and the targeted assaults on more than a dozen reporters during the January 6 Capitol riot.
The Washington Hilton itself was the site of the 1981 shooting of President Ronald Reagan. None of that context excuses what Allen did. It does, however, frame the country we live in: one where a Caltech graduate with no criminal history can travel cross-country by train, walk into a hotel, and decide that mass violence is a reasonable response to grievances about a government he came to see as criminal.
The investigation continues.
