{"id":286577,"date":"2026-04-26T07:15:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T07:15:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/286577\/"},"modified":"2026-04-26T07:15:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T07:15:10","slug":"accused-wh-correspondents-dinner-attacker-is-tutor-and-computer-programmer-from-california-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/286577\/","title":{"rendered":"Accused WH correspondents\u2019 dinner attacker is tutor and computer programmer from California"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">WASHINGTON (AP) &#8211; Social media posts that appear to match the California man arrested Saturday in the shooting at the White House correspondents\u2019 dinner show he is a highly educated tutor and amateur video game developer.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">A May 2025 profile photo of Cole Tomas Allen of Torrance, California, appears to match the appearance of the man in a photo of the alleged attacker being taken into custody that was posted Saturday night by President Donald Trump. The photo, posted to the social networking site LinkedIn, shows him in a cap and gown after graduating with a master\u2019s degree in computer science from California State University-Dominguez Hills.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Allen, 31, earned a bachelor\u2019s degree in 2017 in mechanical engineering from the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. He listed his involvement there in a Christian student fellowship and a campus group that battled with Nerf guns.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"figure-img img-fluid mx-auto d-block\" alt=\"President Donald Trump posted photos on Truth Social following a shooting at the White House...\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/AA5B3C4PK5GXTI25YRWFWO2HSU.jpg\" width=\"980\" height=\"544\" \/>President Donald Trump posted photos on Truth Social following a shooting at the White House correspondents&#8217; dinner.(Source: TruthSocial\/@realDonaldTrump via CNN)<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Bin Tang, a computer science professor at California State University-Dominguez Hills, told The Associated Press that Allen took a few of his classes before graduating a couple years ago.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cHe was a very good student indeed, always sitting in the first row of my class, paying attention, and frequently emailing me with coursework questions. Soft spoken, very polite, a good fellow. I am very shocked to see the news,\u201d Tang wrote in an email.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">A local ABC station in Los Angeles included an interview with Allen during his senior year of college <a href=\"https:\/\/abc7.com\/post\/aging-into-the-future-conference-brings-new-tech-to-help-seniors\/1798540\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/abc7.com\/post\/aging-into-the-future-conference-brings-new-tech-to-help-seniors\/1798540\/\">as part of a story<\/a> about new technologies to help people as they age. He had developed a prototype for a new type of emergency brake for wheelchairs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Allen contributed $25 to a Democratic Party political action committee in support of Kamala Harris for president in 2024, according to federal campaign finance records.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Allen\u2019s online resume says he worked for the last six years at C2 Education, a company that offers admissions counseling and test preparation services to aspiring college students. A 2024 post on the company\u2019s Facebook page listed Allen as the company\u2019s teacher of the month. The company did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment Saturday night.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Allen also posted that he had developed a video game for the Steam platform based on molecular chemistry. A post under Allen\u2019s name said he was working to develop a new \u201ctop-down shooter\u201d combat game set in outer space.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (AP) &#8211; Social media posts that appear to match the California man arrested Saturday in the shooting&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":286578,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,122819,122736,122818,2803,16772,122724],"class_list":{"0":"post-286577","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-california","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-california-headlines","10":"tag-california-news","11":"tag-cole-allen","12":"tag-cole-tomas-allen","13":"tag-correspondents-dinner-shooting","14":"tag-president-donald-trump","15":"tag-shooting-suspect","16":"tag-white-house-correspondents-dinner"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=286577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286577\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/286578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=286577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=286577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=286577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}