The 31-year-old Torrance man accused of trying to kill President Donald Trump at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in Washington, D.C., was ordered Thursday to remain behind bars pending trial.
Cole Tomas Allen was charged Monday with attempting to assassinate the president, transportation of a firearm and ammunition through interstate commerce to commit a felony, and discharging a firearm during a crime of violence.
The assassination charge alone could lead to a life prison sentence, officials said.
Allen made his initial appearance in federal court in Washington, D.C., Monday, when the charges were announced, but he has not yet entered a plea.
During a bail hearing Thursday, a magistrate judge ordered that he remain behind bars, despite a written request by his attorneys this week that he be considered for pre-trial release contending Allen did not pose a threat to the public.
A preliminary hearing — at which a judge determines if there is enough evidence for the case to go to trial — has been tentatively set for May 11.
Federal officials said Allen allegedly sent family members in Southern California a manifesto railing against the Trump administration moments before charging through a security area near the Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday night.
The attack occurred around 5:40 p.m. California time Saturday in a ballroom of the Washington Hilton, the same hotel where President Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981. Security video showed a man attempting to sprint past the security checkpoint, prompting several officers to draw their weapons. The assailant never made it into the main ballroom where the Correspondents’ Dinner was being held one floor below.
Federal officials said Allen opened fire during his charge through the security area. A Secret Service officer was shot, but saved by a bullet-proof vest. Although initially suggesting that Allen shot the officer, it remained unclear if the bullet that struck the agent was fired by the suspect.
Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche said Monday roughly five shots were fired by law enforcement at the suspect. Allen was not struck by gunfire, but he fell to the ground and was taken into custody. Widely circulated images from the scene showed the suspect now identified as Allen handcuffed and face down on a carpeted floor.
U.S. Secret Service agents rushed Trump and first lady Melania Trump out of the hotel and back to the White House. Vice President JD Vance was also rushed out.
Neither the president nor the vice president was injured.
According to Blanche and Jeanine Pirro, U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, Allen on April 6 made a three-night reservation at the Washington Hilton for the nights of April 24-26. Trump had announced in early March that he planned to attend the Correspondents’ Dinner on April 25.
Blanche said Allen traveled by train on April 21 from Los Angeles to Chicago, then from Chicago to the District of Columbia, where he arrived at 1 p.m. Friday and checked into the Hilton.
Pirro said Allen had a clear intent to assassinate Trump and “to bring down as many of the high-ranking cabinet officials as he could.” She said the suspect was carrying a 12 gauge pump-action shotgun, a .38-caliber semiautomatic handgun, at least three knives “and all kinds of paraphernalia.”
Pirro said the suspect’s “manifesto” made his intentions clear. She quoted it as reading, “I am targeting administration officials. They are my targets and I’m prioritizing from the top down.”
She said Allen also vowed to engage with anyone who tried to block him from entering the ballroom where the dinner was being held.
Allen’s parents’ Torrance home, where he lived, was also searched after FBI agents. Video from the scene late Saturday night showed a large law enforcement presence, including SWAT-type personnel and equipment outside Allen’s house. Shortly before midnight, video showed agents had entered the home.
Investigations by the Secret Service and the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, D.C. were continuing.
According to multiple media reports, Allen sent his manifesto to family members about 10 minutes before the disruption at the Correspondents’ Dinner, calling himself the “Friendly Federal Assassin” and stating that he was trying to kill members of the administration.
“Turning the other cheek is for when you yourself are oppressed. I’m not the person raped in a detention camp. I’m not the fisherman executed without trial. I’m not a schoolkid blown up or a child starved or a teenage girl abused by the many criminals in this administration,” Allen wrote. “Turning the other cheek when `someone else’ is oppressed is not Christian behavior; it is complicity in the oppressor’s crimes.”
According to his LinkedIn profile, Allen has been employed part-time since March 2020 at Torrance-based C2 Education, a private company that prepares students for college entrance exams. C2 Education provides “tutoring, test prep and college counseling,” according to its website. It also named Allen on its social media accounts as Teacher of the Month in December 2024 at C2 Education.
Allen identified himself on LinkedIn as a “self-employed” indie game developer, having apparently released on Steam an “atomic fighting game” in 2018 called Bohrdom, which was advertised using accounts on YouTube and Twitter.
A game trailer caption described it as a “non-violent, skill-based, asymmetrical fighting game loosely based on a chemistry model that is itself loosely based on reality.”
Allen wrote on his page that he is a “mechanical engineer and computer scientist by degree, independent game developer by experience, teacher by birth.”
Allen earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Caltech in 2017, according to his LinkedIn page, and a master’s degree in computer science from Cal State Dominguez Hills in 2025.
Officials at Cal State Dominguez Hills issued a statement late Saturday confirming that he graduated from the university last year.
“A student named Cole Allen graduated with a master’s degree from California State University, Dominguez Hills in 2025,” the statement said.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge confirmed that Allen was an intern there in 2014.
“NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory unequivocally denounces violence and extends our condolences and support to all those impacted by this incident,” the agency said in a statement. “We can confirm that the suspect interned at JPL for approximately three months in 2014.”