5 things to know about suspected WHCA Dinner shooting suspect Cole Allen
1. Allen was a computer scientist with no criminal record
Nothing in Allen’s history had flagged him to authorities before the shooting, as he had no criminal record and was not on any law enforcement watch list, officials have said.
His LinkedIn profile indicates that Allen earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the California Institute of Technology in 2017. He later obtained a master’s degree in computer science from California State University, Dominguez Hills, in May 2025.
While at Caltech, Allen claimed to have interned at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 2014, working on modeling capabilities for planets around stars previously excluded from such research. He was also a member of the Caltech Christian Fellowship and a campus recreational group, reports Sky News.
A former high school volleyball teammate, speaking anonymously to NBC News, called Allen a “borderline genius” who did not need to study and was “the most gentle person on the team.” A professor at Cal State Dominguez Hills described him as “a very good student” who was “soft spoken, very polite.”
After graduating, Allen worked briefly as a mechanical engineer before moving into video game development. He released a game called “Bohrdom” on the Steam platform in 2018, according to Wired. He later worked part time at C2 Education in Torrance. In December 2024, the company named him “Teacher of the Month.”
