Who is Cole Allen? 7 interview from 2017 appears to feature Torrance, CA man arrested in Correspondents’ Dinner shooting

Eyewitness News exclusive video appears to show the Southern California man accused of charging the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday, firing as he ran toward the ballroom.

A man who appears to be the suspect — 31-year-old Cole Thomas Allen from Torrance — was interviewed by 7 when he was a student at CalTech in 2017. He was at an aging conference and had designed a new way to make wheelchairs safer.

“The idea with this is to prevent it from moving at all,” the man said in the 2017 interview. “The wheelchair brakes tend to lock the wheels, but don’t lock the chair to the ground.”

Secret Service agents stormed the stage and rushed President Donald Trump, the First Lady, the Vice President and other top officials to safety after gunshots were fired outside the ballroom at the Washington Hilton on Saturday night.

Federal investigators say Allen charged past security and opened fire on a Secret Service agent. Security video shows the Secret Service quickly tackling him.

Investigators say Allen was armed with a shotgun, a handgun and multiple knives.

Federal investigators are working to piece together a detailed timeline of the gunman’s moves leading up to the incident.

Sources tell News that Allen sent a message to his family just before the shooting, describing himself as a “friendly federal assassin.”

The suspect wrote that he planned to target administration officials, prioritized from highest-ranking to lowest, according to sources familiar with his message.

In the message shared with family members, Allen apparently said that while dinner guests were not his “targets,” he “would still go through most everyone here to get to the targets if it were absolutely necessary.”

Sources say Allen’s brother called police in Connecticut once he saw the message, but that call came two hours after the shooting. Meanwhile, Allen’s sister told investigators he bought his weapons legally in California and kept them at his parents’ Torrance home without them knowing.

U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro told reporters at a press briefing Saturday night, “It is clear, based upon what we know so far, that this individual was intent on doing as much harm and as much damage as he could.”

“We’re still looking at video surveillance and footage of where he walked and how he got in and how those firearms got in,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said. “Do not forget that the system worked. The secret service kept us safe, and that man was quickly apprehended and subdued minutes, seconds after he tried to breach the perimeter.”

The secret service agent who was shot was wearing a bulletproof vest and was treated for minor injuries.

Allen was evaluated at a hospital and is being held by Washington, D.C., police. He sustained a knee injury in the takedown, law enforcement officials said, but is expected to be OK.

He is due in court on Monday on charges of using a firearm during a crime of violence and assault on a federal officer using a dangerous weapon, but prosecutors said they may add other charges.

A major part of the investigation is happening at Allen’s parents’ home in Torrance. FBI agents on the scene are scouring his background and looking for clues.

What we know about Cole Allen

According to his LinkedIn profile, Allen graduated in 2017 from CalTech, where he listed memberships in the school’s Christian Fellowship and Nerf Club. He graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering before earning a master’s degree from Cal State-Dominguez Hills in 2025, the profile said.

Allen characterized himself on LinkedIn as an “Indie Game Developer” who created a video game called “Bohrdom,” which he calls an “atomic fighting game” that is “a skill-based, non-violent asymmetrical fighting game loosely derived from a chemistry model that is itself loosely based on reality.” On the gaming platform Steam, one of the popular tags used to find it was “bullet hell,” and another was “shooter.”

According to his profile, Allen was working for C2 Education, a private company that prepares students for college entrance exams.

In a post on his profile, Allen shared that C2 Education named him “Teacher of the Month” in December 2024.

In a written statement, the company said:

“We were shocked to hear the news of the horrifying incident that transpired at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. We are cooperating fully with law enforcement to assist them in their investigation. Violence of any kind is never the answer.”

A group of high school students who were tutored by Allen shared a statement late Sunday describing him as “generally very intelligent” and “normal and friendly.”

The statement was released by Dylan Wakayama, the president of a local nonprofit organization called Asian American Civic Trust, who told News that multiple of his organization’s volunteers are high school students who say they were previously tutored by Allen, including one student who said they had a session with Allen on April 14.

“According to these students, Mr. Allen was knowledgeable across a broad range of subjects and generally very intelligent,” the statement read. “They regarded him as entirely normal and friendly in their interactions. Additionally, they expressed profound shock upon learning he may be connected to the events of April 25.”

Wakayama told News on Sunday that he did not personally know Allen.

Allen is not registered with any political party. His voter registration in Los Angeles County lists him as “no party preference,” according to voter registration records viewed by News.

FBI swarms suspect’s Torrance home

Eyewitness News was on the ground and watched as FBI agents arrived outside of the suspect’s home on Gramercy Avenue in Torrance on Saturday night. There was a very large law enforcement scene in the residential neighborhood, including FBI agents in tactical gear and armored vehicles.

At one point, AIR7 video appeared to show occupants of the home speaking with federal agents on the front porch. Later, it appeared spotlights were focused on a second-story window and the front door.

Agents finally made entry shortly before midnight.

Before agents arrived, 7 Reporter Kevin Ozebek was able to knock on the door where authorities believe Allen lives. No one answered, but a neighbor said he often sees Allen riding his moped in the neighborhood.

“I walked the dog over here, and I got caught up in this circus of helicopters, media, and neighbors,” said Erik Orrie, who lives nearby.

“The fact that his home is here doesn’t define the city of Torrance this way. The action of one person does not represent the entire city,” Torrance Mayor George Chen told 7 at the scene. He noted that Allen is not a teacher at a Torrance school, and is instead a tutor for a private company.

News contributed to this report.