The suspect in the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) dinner shooting had legally purchased weapons, top law enforcement officials told NBC on Sunday (local time).
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Authorities said last night that 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen was carrying a rifle and a handgun when he was taken into custody. Records also showed he purchased a Maverick 12-gauge shotgun in August 2025 and an Armscor Precision .38 semi-automatic pistol in October 2023.
Officials also noted that those were the two guns that were recovered from Allen last night, adding that he also had several knives.
WHCA Dinner Filming: What We Know
According to ABC News, Allen is a trained mechanical engineer who works as a lecturer who has traveled around the country to cause “as much damage as possible”.
Law enforcement officials briefed on the investigation said Allen refused to answer questions but allegedly made some non-specific reference to targeting government officials.
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The shooting, which occurred Saturday night, happened near the main magnetometer area for the event, causing widespread chaos inside the ballroom of the Hilton Hotel, which was packed with thousands of people, including journalists, US President Donald Trump and members of his cabinet.
Officials believe the suspect may have booked a room at the hotel where the dinner was held in early April.
The motive remains unclear: the acting attorney general
According to Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, the motive for the shooting remains unclear and is under investigation. Blanche added that “preliminary” findings revealed that he was targeting administration officials. “We’re still investigating a motive, and that’s something that’s bound to take at least a couple of days,” he said. “We believe he was targeting administration officials with this attack, the attempted attack, but again, that’s pretty preliminary.”
Blanche noted that the US president was “probably” among those officials, but said he wanted to wait and not get ahead of that speculation.
Separately, investigators were now looking into reports that Allen had collected weapons somewhere in the hotel but “didn’t get much.” “He barely broke the circuit,” he said. “And barely, I mean a few feet.
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Further, investigators believe that Allen, who is from California, traveled by train from Los Angeles to Chicago and then from Chicago to Washington, DC, before checking into the hotel where the dinner was held.
The incident raised security concerns and questions about how the suspect managed to breach the perimeter with the weapon.
Blanche said the suspect will be formally charged in DC tomorrow.
An investigation is underway
Law enforcement officers conducted searches related to the suspect in both Southern California and Washington, D.C.
Officials also said investigators have obtained Allen’s phone and other devices and plan to access them once they obtain a search warrant.
Officials said Sunday that the 31-year-old man had no prior criminal record and was not wanted by law enforcement agencies in the capital.
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Who is Cole Thomas Allen?
According to his LinkedIn profile, he graduated from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena, California in 2017 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from California State University, Dominguez Hills, in May 2025.
After graduating from Caltech, he worked a suspicious year as a mechanical engineer before becoming a freelance video game developer and later a part-time teacher at a company dedicated to helping high school students get into college.
Key things
- The suspect had purchased firearms legally, highlighting deficiencies in gun control measures.
- The incident exposes weaknesses in security protocols at major events.
- Investigating the suspect’s background and motives is critical to understanding the attack.
