What we know about Cole Tomas Allen, the WHCD shooting suspect

[0:00] More on the suspect now. Three sources tell CNN that authorities have identified this man as [0:05] Cole Thomas Allen, 31 years old from California. The D.C. police chief said the suspect appeared to [0:12] be a lone actor, was believed to be staying at the Washington Hilton where this dinner was [0:18] happening. CNN's Brian Todd has more on the suspect and what we've learned this morning [0:23] about the Secret Service agent who was shot during the attack. We have new information just in from [0:29] the U.S. Secret Service regarding the Secret Service officer who was shot in the shooting at the [0:35] White House Correspondents' Dinner, Anthony Guglielmi, the chief of communications for the [0:39] Secret Service, telling CNN that the officer in question has been released from the hospital [0:45] and, quote, the ballistic vest helped us avoid a potential tragedy. That is according to Anthony [0:50] Guglielmi, chief of communications for the U.S. Secret Service, that officer released from the [0:55] hospital. Anthony Guglielmi declining to name the officer or the hospital where he was treated, [1:01] but the officer has been released, according to the Secret Service. Some other information we're [1:05] getting, according to sources who spoke to CNN, the suspect is identified as Cole Thomas Allen, [1:11] 31 years old from Torrance, California. Now, according to the interim Washington Metropolitan D.C. [1:16] police chief Jeffrey Carroll, he said that the suspect was armed with a shotgun, a handgun, [1:21] and multiple knives in this exchange. Chief Carroll saying that the suspect and law enforcement [1:27] officers did exchange gunfire, and the chief saying that they believe that the suspect may [1:33] have been a guest at the Washington Hilton Hotel, the same hotel where this incident occurred. [1:38] The chief saying that they secured a room there and are trying to determine the contents of that [1:43] room, so that will provide some critical information. Now, according to the U.S. Attorney for Washington, [1:48] D.C. Jeanine Pirro, the suspect faces two charges at least. One of them is using a firearm during a crime [1:54] of violence. The other is assault on a federal officer using a dangerous weapon. And some quick [2:00] information on this alleged suspect's background, according to public records that CNN was able to [2:06] sift through. He worked as a teacher and a video game developer. According to a LinkedIn profile matching [2:11] his name and photograph, it described him as a part-time teacher at C2 Education. That is a test prep and [2:18] tutoring company. CNN has reached out to C2 for comment. We have not heard back from them. C2, according to its [2:25] records, did name Allen as the company's quote, teacher of the month in December of 2024. According to a LinkedIn [2:32] profile, Allen graduated from the California Institute of Technology in 2017 with a bachelor's degree in [2:39] mechanical engineering. He received a master's degree in computer science from Cal State University at Dominguez Hills last year in [2:47] 2025. According to Federal Election Commission records, he donated $25 to Kamala Harris's presidential campaign in [2:55] 2024. And he described himself in his LinkedIn profile as a video game developer. He appears to have published at least one [3:06] game, an indie game called Boredom, for sale on the Steam gaming platform. So a little bit more of the background of this [3:13] alleged suspect, Cole Thomas Allen. Let's bring in now retired FBI Supervisory Special Agent Jason Pack. Jason, hello to you. [3:22] We've not heard anything yet about whether Allen is cooperating with investigators, but the FBI has searched a home linked to this suspect. We've got video of it from Torrance, California. Detail for us just the work that's happening to get the answer to the two big questions. [3:43] Why? And the target that's happening right now. [3:48] Victor, good morning. And those are the two most important questions this morning. There's a lot of work going on in two locations and maybe more that we don't know about. Clearly, the FBI's evidence response team there at the hotel in Washington. And now we see the scene fan out into California there in Torrance where FBI agents are likely executing a search warrant to get to that. Why? They're looking for pieces of evidence in their computers, phones, writings. Was there a manifesto like sometimes that we see? [4:20] Or importantly, or importantly, if there's not, that also says something. So there's a lot of work going into that effort to figure out what happened and why it happened. So that why piece we're seeing in Torrance there. And as the agents and the investigators in Washington piece together some of that trajectory, we don't know where all the shots have gone. So the FBI lab and the evidence response team will do some trajectory analysis and see where those rounds went and who may have fired them. And we are still unclear about that. [4:50] Because they'll take those pieces of information and match that up with some of those charges that the United States Attorney announced last night. [4:57] You mentioned the potential for a manifesto. And listen, we've covered so many of these that often we find a manifesto online. Now, let's go through what we know about this suspect. [5:09] This is someone who came to this event, according to law enforcement, was a guest at the hotel, had this long gun, had a pistol, a handgun, several knives, and picked not only an event that the president was attending, but also literally the most well-known names and most influential people in media. [5:32] Is this the type of suspect who would want the world to know why he's doing this, considering the event he picked? [5:43] Yeah, I think that's a fair question and just shows you the level of preparedness and premeditation. [5:48] You just don't wake up and decide to go to the White House Correspondent Center, as you know. [5:52] You have to plan that a lot. So it required a lot of pre-planning, a lot of thinking, probably a lot of research. [5:58] And the fact that he was able to travel from California, we think, all the way to Washington, the hotel rooms there are not cheap either. [6:05] So doing the retrace of the financials to how he got there, who he may have spoken with, and all the people he may have interacted with. [6:12] They're pulling the hotel video to be able to see where he's come and gone there while he was at the hotel and how did he get the weapons in. [6:20] And so a lot of questions to answer there. But as far as the reason, clearly you have some of the most experienced journalists in the world in the same room with the world leaders. [6:29] And that certainly says something about his motivation, I would think. [6:33] Can you explain something? Control room, let's put up the picture of Alan on the floor face down. [6:40] Yes, this picture. I've covered many of these after which the shooter has been apprehended. [6:47] And it appears he's obviously shirtless. I don't know what else he has on, but he's covered by a Mylar blanket. [6:55] Is it protocol to take the suspect's clothes off? I've never seen this. Explain why we're seeing this, him in this condition. [7:05] Well, they probably were looking for explosives or something. [7:07] So when you detain a person, you do what's called a high risk search to make sure there are no weapons in the waistband, those types of things. [7:13] And then you do a full search on that. So this appears to be some sort of full search. [7:17] It does look like that blanket on top of him there. So they wanted to make sure there were no other threats. [7:22] Did he have any explosives tied to him? Those types of things. [7:25] When somebody is charging at you with a shotgun, you don't take any any any chances with that. [7:31] So you want to make 100 percent sure that there is no other threats. [7:34] Speaking of other threats, this investigation is only a few hours old. [7:38] And early on, even last night, we heard law enforcement say that they believe that he acted alone. [7:46] How were they so early in the investigation able to reach that? [7:50] I mean, maybe he was there at the Washington Hilton alone. [7:53] But to say that he acted alone, how did they get there potentially? [7:59] Well, that's a very good point, because we all know in these early stages of these crises, as investigators learn things, the facts kind of change a little bit. [8:06] Right. Because they haven't done their homework and they've interviewed people and they they are able to prove what they're saying. [8:12] So there has to be some sort of at least initial level of optimism that that was true. [8:17] Again, like you said, Victor, there probably wasn't anybody with them. [8:21] They were making sure of that. And then in their checks, their checks in the background. [8:25] Initially, nothing probably came up. But I think as we go in the days ahead here, they're going to make sure that that is the case. [8:32] And they're going to talk to all of his associates. We know that he might have been a teacher. [8:35] They'll go to any of those types of places, interview his co-workers, see who his associates are and go and build that timeline from the time the shooting happened. [8:45] It worked all the way back several weeks beforehand to see how we got to the point last night. [8:49] Joining me now is CNN law enforcement analyst and former Secret Service agent Jonathan Wackrow. [8:55] Jonathan, thanks for joining me. [8:56] Let's start here. Wolf, in his description of the security posture outside the Washington Hilton, said that he's been to this obviously many times. [9:09] This was something at a level he'd never seen before. [9:12] The check three or four blocks away intensified security. [9:16] What typically informs something like that? [9:19] Is it simply coincidental that that increased security happens the year that there is this shooting? [9:27] Or is it often the environment or a specific threat that would lead to the type of security that has not been seen at this dinner before? [9:38] Well, Victor, good morning. And to answer your question, it's the latter. It's the threat environment. [9:42] So the Secret Service operates off of a threat based methodology when they're building out any type of security plan for the president of the United States or any of their protectees at any site that they may be going to. [9:56] So in this case, because the president, this was going to be the first time at this event as the sitting president, there was a lot of publicity coming about this event leading up to last night. [10:12] That really creates a lot of threat vectors that can manifest themselves for this type of event. [10:19] And the Secret Service knows that. So they actually start building out this security plan. [10:26] And really what Wolf was saying is concentric rings of protection that radiate out from the center of the stage where the president was sitting. [10:34] So you have multiple layers of defense at that site that radiate out, not just at the surface level, but it's 360 degrees. [10:45] There's airspace security that goes on. There are a lot of components of the security program that the public just does not see. [10:54] Wolf did describe some of those elements that were out the outer perimeter, the inner perimeter, the magnetometers all the way into the ballroom. [11:03] So, again, what we do know, though, is that security plan did work. [11:09] It did prevent this threat from manifesting itself inside the ballroom and having tragic consequences. [11:15] Yeah. And as we know, having covered these shootings at schools and grocery stores and movie theaters, there are degrees of of soft targets, hard targets. [11:30] Any space around the president obviously is hardened. [11:33] But when you have the Washington Hilton, eleven hundred rooms, thousands literally of people in that ballroom, how far can the the perimeter be extended? [11:48] Right. So this checkpoint that he crashed through was a level above the ballroom. [11:52] Short of checking every person's baggage, TSA style, coming into the hotel as a guest, how do you keep those weapons out of the building when the president potentially comes in? [12:06] Well, again, what we don't know is, you know, some of those those pre attack elements. [12:11] You know, what was the the staging that the attacker went through to prepare for this evening? [12:17] And I think that's going to be a critical part of this investigation is when did he set up the weapons and have that cache of weapons available to him to then go ahead and launch the attack at that magma may main mag magnetometer site? [12:34] You know, timing here is also critical if that attack was 60 minutes earlier, this would have been a tragic event with numerous casualties and individuals hurt because that is the only place where the public was aggregating before they fully got screened going into the event. [12:55] So understanding these attack dynamics, which I actually will underscore that it actually speaks to the premeditation. [13:03] If this attacker did have a room or access into the hotel prior to the security program being fully stood up outside, again, that speaks to this this calculated planning that he had. [13:15] But again, what we saw was, again, not relying on one element of the security plan, but that multiple overlapping layers of security actually did work last night.