An annual Washington, D.C., tradition was upended Saturday when a man identified as Cole Tomas Allen rushed a security checkpoint at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner armed with multiple firearms and knives. Allen exchanged gunfire with Secret Service agents and struck one officer, who was wearing a bulletproof vest, before being subdued. The commotion prompted the swift evacuation of President Donald Trump and Vice-President J.D. Vance from the dais in the Washington Hilton ballroom as other guests and dignitaries at the press gala took cover.

Cole Tomas Allen was arraigned on federal charges related to the incident on Monday and has been officially charged with an attempted assassination of the president of the United States. As new details keep trickling in, here’s what we know about Allen and his motivations for Saturday’s attack.

Hours after the incident, news outlets identified the alleged shooter as 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen, a resident of Torrance, California. Allen received a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering from the highly selective California Institute of Technology in 2017. Last May, he earned a Master of Science degree in computer science from California State University, Dominguez Hills, per his LinkedIn profile. On the page, Allen describes himself as a “mechanical engineer and computer scientist by degree, independent game developer by experience, teacher by birth.” His profile lists past stints as a mechanical engineer and teaching assistant. His current roles include working as a part-time teacher at C2 Education, a private test-prep-and-tutoring company, as well as developing video games on his own.

The Associated Press reports that Allen is the eldest of four siblings and that voter-registration records list his parents’ home in Torrance as his last known address. People who knew Allen appeared surprised to learn of his involvement in Saturday’s incident. In an email to the New York Times, Bin Tang, a California........

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