On Monday, Cole Allen was charged with attempting to assassinate President Trump in Saturday’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooting.
Meanwhile, residents in a Torrance neighborhood were surprised that the suspect in the shooting was someone they live just doors away from.
Bill Johnson, a neighbor, told KNX News’ Emily Valdez he didn’t know much about Cole Allen.
“He had a pop-up tent in his front yard, and it blew over by the wind, and I helped him situate it,” he said. “He rode his Vespa, all the time, and charged it in front of his house, and that's the extent of me talking to him.”
James Bolinas lives across the street and recalled watching the FBI raid Allen’s family home on Sunday.
“I stood down here and just watched all of them head down that way, and that was pretty much it,” he said.
Bolinas said he’s shocked by what happened because Torrance “has always been really quiet.”
Johnson said he’s worried that the media coverage would impact the community.
“I don't want it to tear it apart because there is a lot of difference here, and I don't want that divide to be physical in any way,” he said.
Allen reportedly graduated from Caltech in 2017 and recently earned a master's degree from Cal State Dominguez Hills. According to his LinkedIn, he worked as a science tutor and was also an independent video game creator.
The feds think he took a train to Chicago and then to Washington, DC, with a shotgun and a handgun he had bought legally in California. The investigators have been going through a "manifesto" where he described himself as a “Friendly Federal Assassin.”
It also apparently said Trump administration officials would be targeted in priority, "from highest-ranking to lowest." He had shared it with his family, and his brother flagged it for the police.
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