A photo of the suspect in the shooting at the White House correspondents dinner was posted on President Donald Trump’s Truth social account on April 25, 2026.
@realdonaldtrump | true social
The annual White House correspondents’ dinner was disrupted Saturday night when an armed man, Cole Allen, broke into a security checkpoint and exchanged gunfire with law enforcement officers.
The suspected gunman was captured at the scene and is expected to be arraigned on Monday. One law enforcement agent was shot but not seriously injured, and all Trump administration officials and lawmakers were evacuated safely. There were no reports of injuries to anyone present.
Following the event, President Donald Trump – who was attending his first White House Correspondents’ Dinner as president – requested that the event be rescheduled. While the dinner was initially scheduled to go ahead, it was canceled because law enforcement deemed the venue an active crime scene.
Here’s what we know about Allen:
He was allegedly targeting the Trump administration
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanch said the suspected shooter was likely targeting administration officials during CNN’s “State of the Union” program.
“It appears the suspect was targeting members of the administration,” Blanch said, noting that authorities are still “trying to discern a motive from our initial investigation.”
Blanch said it was unclear whether the shooter was targeting “specific members” of the administration, only that “we understand that was his target and his target.”
He traveled from Los Angeles
Blanch said Allen, of Torrance, California, traveled by train “from Los Angeles to Chicago, then from Chicago to DC.”
Allen was booked at the Washington Hilton, where the dinner was being held, and Blanche said he had checked in on Friday.
Blanch said the suspect is not cooperating with authorities, and authorities have obtained most of the information about him “through other means.”
“We’ve already started talking to people who knew him, looking at the evidence we’ve collected,” he said.
FBI tactical agents clear a path as they prepare to leave an investigation site near a home linked to the suspected White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooter in Torrance, California, early April 26, 2026.
Patrick T. Fallon | AFP | getty images
he was a teacher
According to him, Allen was a teacher at C2 Education, a tutoring, test preparation, and college admissions counseling provider. LinkedIn Profile.
In a statement to CNBC, C2 said they were “shocked to hear of the horrific incident that occurred at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.”
The company said, “We are cooperating fully with law enforcement to assist in their investigation. Violence of any type is never the answer.”
His LinkedIn profile shows that he graduated from the California Institute of Technology with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and a master’s degree in computer science from California State University, Dominguez Hills.
Alan wrote a letter
Allen reportedly wrote a detailed letter about his plans, the contents of which were obtained New York Post.
In the note published by the Post, Allen reportedly said she was “no longer willing to allow a pedophile, rapist and traitor to cover my hands with his crimes.”
Allen described himself in the letter as a “friendly federal killer.”
The suspected shooter also noted that security at the event and the Washington Hilton was lower than he expected, a warning also noted by several elected officials and attendees.
Oversight hearings are now expected on Capitol Hill in response to the shooting, which marks the third attempt on Trump’s life since 2024.
A spokesperson for Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, told MS NOW that the U.S. Secret Service is scheduling a bipartisan hearing on “security protocols and related law enforcement matters involving the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.”
Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi told MS NOW that the suspect’s brother contacted the New London, Connecticut, police department about the letters, which then contacted the Secret Service. The Secret Service became aware of the letters between 9 pm and 11 pm ET on Saturday night.
He was not on the radar of law enforcement
Blanch said Sunday that there was “no indication yet” that Allen was on law enforcement’s radar.
“We’re still investigating what, if anything, we knew about this individual,” he said.
Blanch said Allen purchased “the two firearms he owns” within the past two years, and he also “had knives.”
Despite the apparent security breach and widespread comments about unusually lax security at the program, Blanch said she was “highly confident that the Secret Service did its job here.”
Allen “barely crossed the perimeter, he was immediately subdued… This is law enforcement doing exactly what they have trained their entire lives to do.”
— CNBC’s Ryan Ruggiero contributed to this report