Khaberni - Officials said that Secret Service agents quickly removed President Donald Trump and his wife Melania from the White House Correspondents' Dinner on Saturday evening after a man opened fire on security personnel.
An FBI official told "Reuters" that the gunman shot a Secret Service agent. About two hours after the incident, Trump told reporters at the White House that the security officer survived thanks to his bulletproof vest and was in "good condition." The suspect has been apprehended, whom Trump described as a "sick person."
All federal officials attending the dinner, including Trump, are unharmed.
According to American media reports, the suspect in the shooting incident at the White House Correspondents' Dinner was based in California.
According to public records, the suspect was employed as a teacher and video game developer from Southern California.
Informed sources told CNN that law enforcement authorities identified Cole Thomas Allen, age 31, who lives in the Torrance suburb of Los Angeles, as the armed man who was apprehended near the dinner attended by President Trump and other officials.
His profile on "LinkedIn," featuring his name and photo, describes him as a part-time teacher at C2 Education, a company specializing in test preparation and tutoring. C2 Education had awarded Allen the "Teacher of the Month" title in December 2024, according to the company’s social media posts.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Allen graduated from the California Institute of Technology in 2017 with a Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, and he earned a Master’s degree in Computer Science from "California State University - Dominguez Hills" last year.
As a student at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), he was featured in a local news report in 2017 for developing a prototype emergency brake for wheelchairs.
Allen donated $25 to Kamala Harris's presidential campaign in October 2024, according to Federal Election Commission records.
Allen also describes himself as a video game developer on his LinkedIn profile, and he appears to have published an independent game called Bohrdom for sale on the gaming platform Steam for $1.99. He registered a trademark for the game’s name in 2018, according to federal trademark records.
On his LinkedIn account, Allen wrote that he is "currently working on developing a second game, tentatively named 'The First Law'."
