The suspect in a shooting at the White House Correspondents' Association (WHCA) dinner told law enforcement after his arrest that his target was officials from the Trump administration, CBS News reported on Saturday, citing sources.

The suspect, identified as Cole Tomas Allen, did not specify that he was targeting US President Donald Trump but said his target was ⁠administration ⁠officials, the report said.

Allen, 31, is from California and works as a teacher at a tutoring service provider. He was a guest at the Washington Hilton, where the dinner was held, and had booked a room at the hotel.

Separately, CNN reported that Allen is also a video game developer and lives in Torrance, a suburb of Los Angeles.

According to publicly available information cited in the reports, Allen graduated from the California Institute of Technology in 2017 with a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering and obtained a master's degree in computer science last year from California State University, Dominguez Hills.

Records from the Federal Election Commission show that Allen donated $25 to the 2024 presidential campaign of then-US Vice President Kamala Harris in October 2024.