Gunman in DC Gala Attack Built Up Arsenal to Target US Officials

The man accused of storming the White House Correspondents’ Dinner spent years quietly acquiring his arsenal, purchasing a shotgun from a Torrance, California, firearms dealer eight months before the attack and a semi-automatic pistol two years earlier, according to a law enforcement intelligence profile reviewed by Bloomberg.

Cole Tomas Allen, 31, bought a Maverick 12-gauge pump-action shotgun from Turner’s Outdoorsman in Torrance in August 2025 and an Armscor semi-automatic pistol from CAP Tactical Firearms in Lawndale in October 2023, the profile shows.

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino jumps over a chair after an incident at the annual White House Correspondents Association Dinner April 25.

Photographer: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Allen, who earned a mechanical engineering degree from Caltech in 2017 and was pursuing a master’s degree ...