Cole Tomas Allen, 31, currently a resident of Torrance, California, was scheduled to make his first federal court appearance Monday, April 27 on preliminary charges of using a firearm during a crime of violence and assault on a federal officer using a dangerous weapon, according to U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro.
Allen graduated from the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena in 2017 with a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering. He went on to receive a master’s degree in computer science from California State University, Dominguez Hills, in 2025.
President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump were safely evacuated from the Washington Hilton ballroom after Allen allegedly charged through a security checkpoint armed with a shotgun, a handgun and multiple knives, according to Interim Metropolitan Police Chief Jeffery Carroll. Vice President JD Vance was also rushed out. One U.S. Secret Service agent was struck by gunfire but was protected by a bulletproof vest and is expected to recover.
The Washington Hilton is the same hotel where President Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981.
Allen’s Pasadena Years: 2013 to 2017
Allen attended Caltech from September 2013 through June 2017. During his senior year, he served as a teaching assistant in the mechanical engineering department.
According to NBC News, a former high school teammate described Allen as a “borderline genius” who absorbed complex information effortlessly.
In March 2016, during his junior year, Allen was a member of the five-person “Blitzkrieg Bots” team that won the 31st annual Mechanical Engineering 72 (ME72) Design Competition, an annual robot soccer tournament held on the Pasadena campus and dubbed the “Tridroid Cup.” According to the San Gabriel Valley Tribune, team members estimated they spent between 700 and 800 hours building their robots for the contest. The team strategy combined smaller robots focused on scoring one-point goals while a larger robot played defense.
Allen was also reportedly active in the Caltech Christian Fellowship, a student group that held Bible studies, prayer hours and retreats on campus. His online profiles further listed him as a member of the Caltech Nerf Club, a recreational group that staged Nerf-style combat games on university grounds.
Worshipped Weekly at a Pasadena Church
Movses Janbazian, pastor of Pasadena United Reformed Church, told National Public Radio that Allen attended weekly services at the church while he was a student at Caltech.
In comments to NPR, Janbazian described Allen as a “good guy” and “quiet,” and said Allen was faithful in his attendance and friendly to fellow congregants. The pastor told NPR that Allen was in a competitive academic environment and that the congregation did not see him often outside of services because he was usually working on schoolwork. Janbazian called the news “very surprising” and said he did not know what to think.
The Pasadena church connection is separate from Allen’s involvement in the Caltech Christian Fellowship student group, as documented in his 2016 Facebook photos.
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Fellowship
In the summer of 2014, following his freshman year, Allen completed a Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
From June through August 2014, Allen worked as a planetary modeling intern, conducting research in astrophysics and planetary science. According to a Caltech Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship report, his work included adding modeling capabilities for planets around several previously excluded stars and updating the model to the most recent version with new chemical reaction data.
In a statement issued Saturday, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory confirmed Allen’s internship and condemned the alleged attack.
“NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory unequivocally denounces violence and extends our condolences and support to all those impacted by this incident,” the agency said in its statement. “We can confirm that the suspect interned at JPL for approximately three months in 2014.”
Wheelchair Emergency Brake Prototype
In early 2017, during his senior year at Caltech, Allen developed a prototype for a new style of emergency brake for wheelchairs. He presented the invention at the “Aging into the Future” conference, an event powered by St. Barnabas Senior Services held at the Los Angeles Convention Center. The event was featured in an ABC7 Los Angeles news segment dated March 13, 2017.
Allen represented Caltech as an undergraduate inventor at the conference.
Early Engineering Career in the San Gabriel Valley
After graduating from Caltech, Allen remained in the Pasadena area to begin his professional career. From June 2017 through September 2018, he reportedly worked as a mechanical engineer at IJK Controls, a company located in South Pasadena, where his duties included redesigning two-axis gimbal designs using SolidWorks, creating geometric dimensioning and tolerancing part drawings, and maintaining an Android-based graphical user interface for a four-axis gimbal.
During the summer of 2016, between his junior and senior years at Caltech, Allen reportedly completed a three-month mechanical engineering internship at Fluid Synchrony in Pasadena, where he designed a three-dimensional printed human-wearable case for a medical control system.
After leaving IJK Controls in September 2018, Allen transitioned to self-employment as an independent video game developer.
During this period he developed and released “Bohrdom,” a personal computer game distributed on the Steam platform and built using the C++ programming language. According to the City News Service wire, a game trailer caption described it as a “non-violent, skill-based, asymmetrical fighting game loosely based on a chemistry model that is itself loosely based on reality.” The game was advertised using accounts on YouTube and Twitter that, according to Wired magazine, appeared to have almost no following.
Federal Officials Detail the Case
Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, April 26, that authorities believe Allen traveled by train from Los Angeles to Chicago, then from Chicago to Washington, D.C., where he checked into the Washington Hilton in the day or two before the dinner.
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Kash Patel said a long gun and shell casings were recovered at the scene.
U.S. Attorney Pirro said in a Saturday night news conference that Allen will be arraigned Monday and that an indictment is expected to follow.
Allen was carrying a shotgun, handgun and multiple knives, according to Interim Metropolitan Police Chief Jeffery Carroll, who said that although the suspect was not struck by gunfire, he was nevertheless taken to a hospital to be evaluated.
Searches in Washington and Torrance
Authorities said Allen was registered as a guest of the Washington Hilton and that his room was being searched.
His parents’ Torrance home, where Allen reportedly lived, was also searched after FBI agents waited outside while trying to obtain a warrant after apparently being denied entry from people they talked to inside, according to the City News Service wire. Video from the scene late Saturday night showed a large law enforcement presence, including SWAT-type personnel and equipment outside Allen’s house. Shortly before midnight, video showed agents had entered the home.
According to KTLA5, authorities found the alleged manifesto during their search.
Manifesto Sent to Family
Allen sent a written message to family members about 10 minutes before the disruption at the Correspondents’ Dinner, calling himself the “Friendly Federal Assassin” and stating that he was trying to kill members of the administration, according to multiple media reports cited in the City News Service wire.
“Turning the other cheek is for when you yourself are oppressed. I’m not the person raped in a detention camp. I’m not the fisherman executed without trial. I’m not a schoolkid blown up or a child starved or a teenage girl abused by the many criminals in this administration,” Allen wrote, according to the California Post. “Turning the other cheek when ‘someone else’ is oppressed is not Christian behavior; it is complicity in the oppressor’s crimes.”
The newspaper cited an unnamed U.S. official who said the manifesto was provided to police by a relative of Allen’s. That report was later backed up by other media accounts, including an Associated Press report that said Allen’s brother contacted police in New London, Connecticut, after receiving the writings.
In the manifesto, Allen allegedly identified his targets Saturday night as “Administration officials … they are targets, prioritized from highest-ranking to lowest. I am no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes.”
The Associated Press also reported that federal agents had contacted Allen’s sister in Maryland, who allegedly told them her brother purchased several weapons from a California gun store and kept them at the Torrance home without his parents’ knowledge. She added that her brother was prone to making radical statements.
Torrance, Caltech and Cal State Statements
Torrance Mayor George Chen went to the Allen home Saturday night and told a reporter Allen was not an employee of Torrance Unified School District.
“We are aware of reports identifying the suspect as a resident of Torrance,” Chen said in a statement late Saturday night. “While that connection is deeply troubling, one individual’s alleged actions do not define our city or the values of the more than 143,000 residents who call Torrance home. Torrance is a community built on respect, diversity, hard work, and public safety.”
Officials at California State University, Dominguez Hills, issued a statement late Saturday confirming that Allen graduated from the university in 2025.
“A student named Cole Allen graduated with a master’s degree from California State University, Dominguez Hills in 2025,” the statement said. “The university cannot confirm if this is the same suspect identified in the April 25 shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.” Media reports indicate Allen’s Cal State Dominguez Hills degree was in computer science.
Wired magazine reported that Allen has been employed part-time since March 2020 at Torrance-based C2 Education, a private company that prepares students for college entrance exams. C2 Education named Allen on its social media accounts as Teacher of the Month in December 2024.
A Neighbor’s Account
Paul Thompson, a deputy Los Angeles County district attorney who is running for a seat on the county Superior Court and has a campaign sign on the front lawn of the Allen house, told the California Post he has lived next door to the family for a couple of years but didn’t know Cole Allen.
“I didn’t really know the guy that’s accused of committing the crimes in DC last night,” Thompson said. “I know his parents,” he said, describing them as “pretty normal, non-violent and friendly.”
Trump Recounts the Evening
Shortly after being evacuated from the ballroom, Trump took to social media to recount the event.
“Quite an evening in D.C.,” the president wrote on X. “Secret Service and law enforcement did a fantastic job … The shooter has been apprehended.” He said he recommended that the show go on but it was up to law enforcement, and the dinner was canceled.
Allen was scheduled to be arraigned Monday, April 27, 2026, in federal court in Washington, D.C. The investigation by the U.S. Secret Service and the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, D.C. was continuing.
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