The president of the United States, Donald Trump, was evacuated abruptly this Saturday of the traditional White House correspondents’ dinner after An armed man, who was intercepted and detained, tried to enter the event. All attendees, including government staff, had to be evacuated.
After the incident, the US president declared in a press conference at the White House that the perpetrator of the events was a “crazy” and a “lone wolf” that did not breach the security perimeter.
His wife, Melania Trump and Vice President JD Vanceaccompanied him during the evening, as well as several journalists and political figures from Washington. According to Jeanine Pirro, attorney general of the District of Columbia, the perpetrator, who entered armed with a shotgun, is “alive”hospitalized and under surveillance after being neutralized in the hallways of the Washington Hilton Hotel, place that hosted the White House Co-Deputy Association dinner.
Who is Cole Thomas Allen? “Teacher of the month”, video game developer, engineer, scientist and teacher
In addition, a member of the Secret Service, responsible for the president’s security, was shot in his bulletproof vest, but Trump has been able to confirm that he is in good condition. For his part, Donald Trump shared on his social network, Truth Social, the images and a video showing the arrest and pursuit of the suspect in the shooting. The alleged perpetrator of the crime would be Cole Thomas Allen, a 31-year-old citizen born in California..
Allen resides in Torrance, a municipality on the southern outskirts of Los Angeles near the port of Long Beach, where he works as teacher in a company educational called C2 Educationwhich specializes in personalized tutoring and exam preparation for students with unique academic profiles. In fact, in December 2024, it received recognition as “teacher of the month” in the Torrance branch, as it still appears in publications on their networks.
His academic career points to high-level scientific and technical training. According to the information available on his public profiles, Allen completed a degree in engineering that he completed in 2017 and, more recently, in 2025, he obtained a master’s degree in Computer Science. Different media place part of these studies at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), based in Pasadena, although other sources also mention the California State University. On his LinkedIn profile, the alleged attacker defines himself as a “video game developer, engineer, scientist and teacher”.
Allen has not exhibited any intense political activity nor a clear ideological orientation. In his online profiles, content related to technology, programming and video game development prevails, an area in which he also worked outside of teaching. Among the few political publications attributed to his account are criticisms of the massive layoffs of federal employees promoted by the current Administration.
The first investigations, undertaken jointly by the Secret Service, The Metropolitan Police of the District of Columbia and the FBI maintain that the alleged attacker had stayed as a guest at the Hilton hotel itself.a circumstance that could have facilitated the execution of his attack. In addition to the gun, he had several knives with him.as the acting chief of the capital’s police, Jeffrey Carroll, was able to advance. Furthermore, the investigators in charge have so far found no evidence that he acted with accomplices.
The federal prosecutor for the District of Columbia has announced that Cole Thomas Allen will be charged, in the first phase, with two counts of use of a firearm during the commission of a crime of a violent nature and for assault with a dangerous weapon against a federal agent, without ruling out new accusations as the case progresses.