Share and Follow
Recently surfaced footage has offered a surprising glimpse into the past of the gunman accused of attempting a violent intrusion at a press dinner, allegedly with the intent to assassinate President Donald Trump.
The video, dating back a decade and acquired by Fox News Digital, features Cole Allen, who is now 31 years old. In this footage, Allen is seen showcasing his invention at the “Aging into the Future” conference, an event co-sponsored by St. Barnabas Senior Services in Los Angeles. During the conference, he is surrounded by fellow innovators as he presents a prototype for an emergency brake designed for wheelchairs. The device, constructed from simple PVC piping, was described by engineering experts as basic and not particularly sophisticated for a senior at Caltech.
This video starkly contrasts with the image of an angry radical now accused of trying to force his way into the Washington Hilton on Connecticut Avenue NW. Authorities allege this was part of a shocking plot to assassinate Trump administration officials during the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
The footage reveals a very different side to Allen, who is otherwise being depicted through law enforcement interviews with his siblings and his writings in a manifesto. This portrayal is at odds with the narrative suggested by his past.
In response to this revelation, President Trump commented to Fox News on Sunday, reflecting on the nature of such plots, “You know, these assassins, they seem to be high IQ people, but they’re crazy.”
The FBI has now identified Allen as the suspect in the shooting Saturday night at the Washington Hilton, with his brother reporting to law enforcement authorities that Allen’s manifesto detailed allegedly deadly plans at the weekend gathering for journalists and administration officials.
Trump told Fox News, “The guy is a sick guy. When you read his manifesto, he hates Christians. That’s one thing for sure. He hates Christians, a hatred.”
Trump said his family raised alarm bells with law enforcement.
“He was a very troubled guy,” he said, later also calling him “disturbed.”
According to law enforcement officials, Allen also descended into anti-Trump hate, attending at least one of the three “No Kings” protests organized over the past year by groups including Democratic-leading nonprofits, like Indivisible, MoveOn and American Federation of Teachers, and a network of socialist organizations, including the People’s Forum, the Party for Socialism and Liberation and the ANSWER Coalition, funded by an American tech tycoon, Neville Roy Singham, living in Shanghai.
Cole Allen, the suspect in the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, speaks to ABC7 Los Angeles in 2017 about an invention he created for wheelchairs as a student at the California Institute of Technology. (KABC)
Almost a decade ago, Allen appeared to have very different priorities.
In a news segment published in March 2017 by WABC in Los Angeles, Allen appears as a disciplined student at the California Institute of Technology, an elite institution known for admitting students with near-perfect test scores and training top-tier engineers and scientists.
Speaking in a flat, measured tone, Allen walked a reporter through the mechanics of his device, explaining how it could stabilize a wheelchair and prevent it from skidding. “The wheelchair brakes tend to lock the wheels but don’t actually lock the chair to the ground,” he explained.
Cole Allen demonstrates how his wheelchair invention works during an interview with ABC7 Los Angeles in March 2017. (KABC)
Kneeling beside the wheels of a wheelchair and fiddling with an assembly of QVC pipes between the wheels, he continued, “The deal with this is to prevent it from moving at all.”
A year later, Allen earned a mechanical engineering degree. While in college, he completed a competitive summer research fellowship at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, contributing to astrophysics work, according to his LInkedIn profile. He also developed complex technical projects, including a physics-based role-playing shooter game called “First Law,” as well as robotic systems and later another intricate game, “Bohrdom,” released on the Steam platform. Gaming experts said his “Bohrdom” game was very basic in its technical level.
After Caltech, Allen held down a job for only about a year before starting work as a tutor with C2 Education in 2020 and going on to earn a master’s degree in computer science from California State University, Dominguez Hills, in 2025. C2 Education recognized Allen a “teacher of the month” in late 2024, according to a social media post.
Cole Allen in a graduation gown taken on an unknown date. (L) A suspect lies face down on the floor as law enforcement officers detain him following a security incident at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in Washington, D.C., on April 25, 2026. (Cole Allen/LinkedIn; @realDonaldTrump via Truth Social)
Records also show a small political donation during the 2024 election cycle to the Kamala Harris presidential race.
Allen now faces federal charges including using a firearm during a crime of violence and assault on a federal officer, with additional charges expected.