{"id":286633,"date":"2026-04-26T08:16:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T08:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/286633\/"},"modified":"2026-04-26T08:16:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T08:16:08","slug":"accused-correspondents-dinner-attacker-is-tutor-from-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/286633\/","title":{"rendered":"Accused correspondents\u2019 dinner attacker is tutor from California"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Social media posts that appear to match the California man arrested Saturday in the shooting at the White House correspondents\u2019 dinner<\/a> show he is a highly educated tutor and amateur video game developer.<\/p>\n

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

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

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

\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

A local ABC station in Los Angeles included an interview with Allen during his senior year of college 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

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

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

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","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Social media posts that appear to match the California man arrested Saturday in the shooting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":286634,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[565,7,9,8,47689,27996,536,11753,18,9394,13,1270,17,16220,9111],"class_list":["post-286633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-ap-top-news","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-dc-wire","tag-district-of-columbia","tag-donald-trump","tag-gaming","tag-general-news","tag-kamala-harris","tag-politics","tag-torrance","tag-u-s-news","tag-violence","tag-washington-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286633","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=286633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286633\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/286634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=286633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=286633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=286633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}