WH correspondents’ dinner shooter is amateur video game developer, testing tutor: report

Cole Tomas Allen, a 31-year-old from Torrance, California, was arrested on Saturday night in connection to a shooting at the White House correspondents' dinner. Allen received a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the California Institute of Technology in 2017. He has been working at C2 Education, a company providing college admissions counseling and test preparation services, for the past six years. Allen was recognized as the company's teacher of the month in 2024. He is also an amateur video game developer, having developed a game for the Steam platform centered on molecular chemistry and working on a new top-down shooter game set in outer space. Federal campaign finance records show that Allen donated $25 to a Democratic Party political action committee backing Kamala Harris's 2024 presidential campaign.