{"id":286624,"date":"2026-04-26T08:04:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T08:04:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/286624\/"},"modified":"2026-04-26T08:04:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T08:04:09","slug":"accused-wh-correspondents-dinner-attacker-is-tutor-and-computer-programmer-from-california-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/286624\/","title":{"rendered":"Accused WH Correspondents\u2019 Dinner Attacker Is Tutor and Computer Programmer From California"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>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>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>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.<\/p>\n<p>\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>A local ABC station in Los Angeles included an interview with Allen during his senior year of college as <a href=\"https:\/\/abc7.com\/post\/aging-into-the-future-conference-brings-new-tech-to-help-seniors\/1798540\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">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>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>Allen&#8217;s 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>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\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ap.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Associated Press<\/a>. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.<\/p>\n<p>Photos You Should See \u2013 April 2026<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/april-21-pyss-x01.jpg\" alt=\"SHREVEPORT, LOUISIANA - APRIL 20: Children huddle to pray during a memorial gathering on April 20, 2026 in Shreveport, Louisiana. Eight children were killed and two women were wounded during a domestic violence incident in the early morning hours of April 19th, according to local authorities. (Photo by Brandon Bell\/Getty Images)\" class=\"Image__PictureImage-sc-412cjc-1 bBgODV Image-sc-412cjc-2 SlideshowEmbed__Picture-fkpjfn-0 kQDDcT bUlaJL\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A May 2025 profile photo of Cole Tomas Allen of Torrance, California, appears to match the appearance of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":286625,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[5167,7,9,8,95492,95491,95490,15518,122833,6136,13,4568,17,16220,558],"class_list":{"0":"post-286624","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-california","8":"tag-associated-press","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-california-headlines","11":"tag-california-news","12":"tag-collections-political","13":"tag-collections-top-news","14":"tag-collections-us","15":"tag-d-c","16":"tag-d-c-news","17":"tag-political-news","18":"tag-politics","19":"tag-social-media","20":"tag-u-s-news","21":"tag-violence","22":"tag-washington"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286624","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=286624"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286624\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/286625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=286624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=286624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=286624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}