Donald Trump shooter Cole Thomas Allen 'sneaked in as guest' - all we know on gunman

The suspected gunman whose attack saw Donald Trump being quickly evacuated from a White House correspondents' dinner apparently sneaked in as a guest. Chaos ensued at the annual dinner, inside the Washington Hilton Hotel ballroom, after gunshots were heard. The US President, First Lady Melania Trump , Vice President JD Vance, other politicians and hundreds of journalists were among 2,500 people in attendance last night. The suspect was identified by officials as Cole Thomas Allen, 31, from Torrance, California, on the outskirts of Los Angeles. Police added that the suspect was armed with multiple weapons, including a shotgun, handgun and knives. The suspect stormed through a security checkpoint at the hotel and shot at a Secret Service agent at close-range, but he was saved by his bullet-proof vest. Officials added that the suspect was not on the radar of law enforcement and he had no criminal record. Officials said the armed man had been a guest at the Washington Hilton Hotel, where the dinner had been taking place. "We do believe he was a guest here at the hotel. We have secured a room here in the hotel, and again, we'll go through the appropriate procedures to determine what was inside there," said Jeffrey Carroll, interim chief of police for the Metropolitan Police Department. The man reportedly charged at the ballroom before gunfire broke out. The gunman was tackled to the ground and was not injured, but was being evaluated at a hospital, police said. Donald Trump posted an image of the alleged gunman being detained by cops. The President suggested the suspect was working alone and called him a "lone wolf whack job", at a press conference after the chaos. The suspected gunman worked as a teacher and was also a video game developer in California. A LinkedIn profile appearing to match the named suspect Cole Tomas Allen described the man as a part-time teacher at a test prep and tutoring company, named C2 Education. The company awarded the man "teacher of the month" in December 2024, according to social media posts. Allen also said he was a video game developer on his LinkedIn page and recently wrote he was "currently developing a second game, working name 'First Law.'" He previously published a game called Bohrdom and registered a trademark for the named back in 2018. Allen graduated from the California Institute of Technology in 2017 with a degree in mechanical engineering then obtained a master's degree in computer science from California State University-Dominguez Hills. The man appeared to have been featured in a local news report, from 2017, as a Caltech student for developing a prototype emergency brake for wheelchairs. A spokesperson for the university said a person with the name Cole Allen had earned an undergraduate degree in 2017, according to the New York Times.