The alleged shooter at last night’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner in Washington DC has been named as Cole Tomas Allen, a teacher, CIT graduate, and independent games developer. Arrested at the scene, Allen was carrying two guns and multiple knives, with the presumed intent of harming president Trump. No one was seriously hurt, although one security agent was shot at close range, saved by a bulletproof vest.
At 8:35 p.m. ET, Cole Tomas Allen is alleged to have fired shorts at the Washington Hilton as he attempted to enter the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner event. The attendants, largely made up of the White House press, dove under their tables, while president Trump was escorted away by secret service agents. At 9.17 p.m. Trump posted to his Truth Social platform to say Allen “has been apprehended,” later describing him as a “lone wolf whack job.” In the time since, as people have pored over Allen’s social media to try to understand his motivations, it’s come to light that the alleged gunman is a 31-year-old described himself on LinkedIn as a “mechanical engineer and computer scientist by degree, independent game developer by experience, teacher by birth.”
At the time of writing, Allen has one game listed on Steam, a 2018 release called Bohrdom, a multiplayer bullet-hell fighting game based on the chemical interaction of electrons. It was released to almost no attention at all, registering a peak of only two players on release, and is estimated to sold fewer than 100 copies. In the past few hours, however, it has seen more attention as people discover the connection and check out the $2 peculiarity. Steam users are starting to add sarcastic reviews, just over 100 at the time of writing, filled with references to the Correspondents’ Dinner incident.
This is a developing story.