{"id":286836,"date":"2026-04-26T13:21:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T13:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/286836\/"},"modified":"2026-04-26T13:21:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T13:21:10","slug":"accused-wh-correspondents-dinner-attacker-is-tutor-and-computer-programmer-from-california-10","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/286836\/","title":{"rendered":"Accused WH correspondents\u2019 dinner attacker is tutor and computer programmer from California"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/9f0088cc07e6207805b4e872c07beaec.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Social media posts that appear to match the California man arrested Saturday in the <a data-yga=\"{\" ylinkelement=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/white-house-correspondents-dinner-trump-first-amendment-a0a2446832e8596e66c6fccb8426c8aa\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:shooting at the White House correspondents\u2019 dinner;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">shooting at the White House correspondents\u2019 dinner<\/a> show he is a highly educated tutor and amateur video game developer.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">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=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">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 class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">[DOWNLOAD: <a data-yga=\"{\" ylinkelement=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wsbtv.com\/smart-tv\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks<\/a>]<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">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 class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\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=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">RELATED STORIES:<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">A local ABC station in Los Angeles included an interview with Allen during his senior year of college as <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:part of a story;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">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=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">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=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">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=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">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 class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">[SIGN UP: <a data-yga=\"{\" ylinkelement=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/membercenter.wsbtv.com\/newsletters\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/a>]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Social media posts that appear to match the California man arrested Saturday in the shooting at the White&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":286837,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,122736,2803],"class_list":{"0":"post-286836","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-tomas-allen","12":"tag-president-donald-trump"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286836","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=286836"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286836\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/286837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=286836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=286836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=286836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}