The moment news broke of a shooter who burst through a security checkpoint outside the White House Correspondents’ Dinner at the Washington Hilton Saturday night, the profile almost wrote itself: a young, highly intelligent, well-educated man.
The suspect, Cole Allen, 31, of Torrance, California, identifies himself on LinkedIn as a mechanical engineer, computer scientist, independent game developer, and teacher. He graduated from the highly competitive California Institute of Technology in 2017 with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering.
He went on to earn a master’s degree in computer science from California State University in 2025.
Although he hasn’t posted on LinkedIn for 11 months, according to his profile, Allen has been a self-employed independent game developer for nearly 8 years in addition to a part-time teaching position at tutoring company C2 Education.
In the accompanying job description, Allen wrote that he’d “designed and built the C++-based video game Bohrdom,” “formulated and [written] Bohrdom’s advanced 2D elastic collision physics engine,” and was “currently developing a second game, working name “First Law.”
Fox News reported that Allen was honored as C2’s teacher of the month in December 2024. And few will be surprised that, although he is not affiliated with a political party, Federal Election Commission records show he made a $25 contribution to Kamala Harris’s campaign in 2024.
Although a motive in the case has not been formally established, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told CNN on Saturday night that the suspect, whom police say was armed with a shotgun, a handgun, and knives, “appeared to be targeting Trump administration officials.” You don’t say.
The suspect “got off a few shots” before he was subdued by law enforcement, he said. One of those shots struck a Secret Service officer who was wearing a bulletproof vest.
Blanche noted that Allen was not cooperating with law enforcement.
Speaking at a press conference several hours after the incident occurred, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro said that Allen had been charged with “two counts of using a firearm during a crime of violence and assault on a federal officer using a dangerous weapon.” She added that additional charges are expected.
Interim Chief of the Metropolitan Police Department Jeffery W. Carroll told reporters that Allen was a registered guest at the Washington Hilton Hotel, where the event was held, and that his room had been secured by law enforcement. He added that Allen was not previously known to law enforcement.
Allen allegedly told police he was targeting “administration officials,” according to law enforcement sources cited by The New York Post.
The sources said that “Allen wasn’t targeting anyone in particular, and officials aren’t yet sure if he was trying to kill President Trump specifically.”
One source said, “He was trying to just breach his way in and take whoever he could.”
It was widely reported that Allen had written a manifesto which he shared with family members ahead of the incident. According to The L.A. Times, Allen allegedly referred to himself as a “Friendly Federal Assassin,” indicated he was “targeting Trump administration officials, prioritized from highest-ranking to lowest,” and claimed that security at the Washington Hilton Hotel was notably lax.
Fox News reported that Allen’s brother contacted the New London Police Department in Connecticut prior to the shooting. (The L.A. Times reported he contacted the police after the shooting.)
According to Fox:
Allen’s sister, Avriana Allen, told investigators in Rockville, Maryland, that her brother had made increasingly radical statements and often spoke about doing “something” to address issues in the world.She said he had purchased two handguns and a shotgun, which he stored at their parents’ home without their knowledge, and that he regularly trained at a shooting range.She also told authorities that Allen was affiliated with a group called “The Wide Awakes” and had attended a “No Kings” protest in California.
In an early Sunday morning statement, Secret Service Deputy Director Matthew Quinn said, “[Allen] underestimated the protective capabilities of the U.S. Secret Service, and was stopped at first contact. The strength of our layered security posture was evident, with a myriad of countermeasures ahead.”
So what would motivate this young man to throw away his future and travel across the country with the apparent aim of targeting Trump and/or administration officials?
I would imagine he acted for the same reasons as Thomas Matthew Crooks, the 20-year-old who attempted to kill Trump at a July 2024 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, or Ryan Wesley Routh, who waited for hours near a Florida golf course for a chance to take a shot.
The most straightforward explanation is that a decade of rhetoric from the Left portraying Trump as a modern-day Hitler who must be removed from office has led some to view violence not as unthinkable, but as justified — even heroic. And, if they are successful, they can make history.
As conservative analyst Matt Van Swol rightly noted on X, “They don’t kill you because you’re a Nazi. They call you a Nazi so they can kill you.”
Democrats may tone down their rhetoric for a week or two, but they will return to the same narratives once this episode recedes from the headlines. They must because the midterms are looming, and they’ve got nothing else.
Elizabeth writes commentary for Legal Insurrection and The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation. Please follow Elizabeth on X or LinkedIn.
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