{"id":286659,"date":"2026-04-26T09:04:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T09:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/286659\/"},"modified":"2026-04-26T09:04:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T09:04:10","slug":"white-house-correspondents-dinner-shooting-suspect-worked-as-california-teacher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/286659\/","title":{"rendered":"White House Correspondents\u2019 Dinner shooting suspect worked as California teacher"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The man suspected of <a data-yga=\"{\" ylinkelement=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2026\/04\/26\/politics\/whcd-shooting-trump-drama?cid=external-feeds_iluminar_yahoo\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:opening fire at the White House Correspondents\u2019 Association Dinner;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">opening fire at the White House Correspondents\u2019 Association Dinner<\/a> on Saturday night worked as a teacher and video game developer from Southern California, according to public records.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Cole Tomas Allen, 31, who lives in the Los Angeles suburb of Torrance, has been identified by law enforcement as the armed man subdued near the dinner where President Trump and other officials had gathered, two sources familiar with the matter told CNN.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Overnight into Sunday, FBI agents assembled outside a home linked to Allen in Torrance, a Los Angeles suburb. Police tape was put up along part of the street and a spotlight was shone on the home. A number of reporters were gathered at the scene and news helicopters were hovering overhead.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">A next-door neighbor, who did not wish to be identified, told CNN he was not sure if Allen lived at the property. They said they did not see him often, but he was there \u201ca couple of days ago.\u201d The neighbor said the suspected gunman\u2019s father is friendly and chatty, adding that they spoke frequently.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">A LinkedIn profile matching Allen\u2019s name and photo described him as a part-time teacher at C2 Education, a test prep and tutoring company. C2 named Allen the company\u2019s \u201cteacher of the month\u201d in December 2024, according to social media posts from the company. No one answered a phone number for C2 late Saturday evening.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">According to his LinkedIn profile, Allen graduated from the California Institute of Technology in 2017 with a bachelor\u2019s degree in mechanical engineering, and received a master\u2019s degree in computer science from California State University-Dominguez Hills last year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">As a student at Caltech, he was featured in a <a data-yga=\"{\" ylinkelement=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/abc7.com\/post\/aging-into-the-future-conference-brings-new-tech-to-help-seniors\/1798540\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:local news report;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">local news report<\/a> in 2017 for developing a prototype emergency brake for wheelchairs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Allen donated $25 to Kamala Harris\u2019 presidential campaign in October 2024, according to Federal Election Commission records.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Allen also described himself as a video game developer on his LinkedIn profile, and appears to have published an indie game called Bohrdom for sale on the Steam gaming platform for $1.99. He registered a trademark for the game\u2019s name in 2018, according to federal trademark records.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">On his LinkedIn, Allen wrote that he was \u201ccurrently developing a second game, working name \u2018First Law.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">This story has been updated with additional details.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">CNN\u2019s Curt Devine, Scott Glover and Majlie de Puy Kamp contributed reporting.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at <a data-yga=\"{\" ylinkelement=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/www.cnn.com\/account\/register?source=external-feeds_iluminar&amp;cid=external-feeds_iluminar_yahoo&amp;registration_email_campaign=https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/newsletters\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:CNN.com;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">CNN.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The man suspected of opening fire at the White House Correspondents\u2019 Association Dinner on Saturday night worked as&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":286660,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[122850,7,9,122849,8,122736,536,1009,122848,2805],"class_list":{"0":"post-286659","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-california","8":"tag-c2-education","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-california-headlines","11":"tag-california-institute-of-technology","12":"tag-california-news","13":"tag-cole-tomas-allen","14":"tag-donald-trump","15":"tag-southern-california","16":"tag-video-game-developer","17":"tag-white-house"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286659","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=286659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286659\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/286660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=286659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=286659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=286659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}