White House correspondents’ dinner shooting latest: Suspect Cole Allen to be arraigned Monday

(WASHINGTON) — Cole Allen, the suspect in the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner on Saturday night, is expected to be arraigned in U.S. District Court on Monday.

Allen, 31, of Torrance, California, is a trained mechanical engineer working as a tutor who traveled across the country to perpetrate “as much damage as he could,” sources and officials said.

Local authorities said the suspect was tackled by law enforcement after gunfire inside the Washington Hilton, where thousands of journalists as well as President Donald Trump and members of his Cabinet were gathered for the annual event.

Allen was detained near the main magnetometer area for the event, with surveillance video showing the suspect running past security officials. Interim D.C. Metropolitan Police Department Chief Jeffrey Carroll told reporters that the suspect was armed with a shotgun, a handgun and multiple knives. Carroll said the preliminary information is that he was a “lone actor.”

Law enforcement officials briefed on the investigation said that Allen was declining to answer questions but allegedly made some non-specific reference to targeting administration officials.

A Secret Service member was shot during the incident but the bullet hit the agent’s protective vest, Trump said after the incident. The president said he spoke with the agent and he was in good spirits.

Shortly before the White House press briefing, Trump posted a video showing agents subduing the suspect, who he said “charged a security checkpoint armed with many weapons.”

Law enforcement officials said that Allen is believed to have booked a room in the Washington Hilton, where the dinner took place, in early April.

Investigators believe the suspect arrived in Washington by train, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said on Sunday during an interview on ABC News’ “This Week” with anchor George Stephanopoulos.

“We believe he traveled by train from Los Angeles to Chicago and then to Washington, D.C.,” Blanche said.

U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro told reporters 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.”

Pirro said the suspect was being charged with using a firearm during a crime of violence and assault on a federal officer using a dangerous weapon. She said additional charges could follow.

Allen is a trained mechanical engineer working as a tutor, according to a LinkedIn page connected to him.

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 he described as “a skill-based, non-violent asymmetrical fighting game loosely derived from a chemistry model that is itself loosely based on reality,” according to the game’s Steam page.  

Allen’s current employer, C2 Education, named Allen its “Teacher of the Month” in 2024, according to a post on LinkedIn. The tutoring company said in a statement that they were cooperating “fully” with law enforcement and denounced the “horrifying incident” at the dinner, but omitted in its statement details of Allen’s work history.

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

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 ABC News.

A Secret Service after-action review examining the security and possible lapses is already underway, according to officials briefed on internal procedures at the agency. The review is being conducted as a matter of standard procedure, which dictates that such a probe must be done whenever there is an “attack on a protectee.”

The review will go step-by-step through security planning and preparation, the deployment and assignment of personnel, as well as what occurred once the suspect rushed the Secret Service checkpoint. The Secret Service declined to comment on the after-action review.  

ABC News’ Lauren Minore, Luke Barr, Nicholas Kerr, Ivan Pereira, Aaron Katersky, Josh Margolin, John Santucci, Michelle Stoddart, Lucien Bruggeman, Oren Oppenheim, Katherine Faulders and Peter Charalambous contributed to this report.

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