A dormant Twitter account named Henry Martinez eerily tweeted “Cole Allen” in 2023, two years before a man with that name—allegedly a former NASA intern—was arrested in a White House shooting, sparking viral “time machine” theories.
What was meant to be a night of political satire and celebration at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner was violently interrupted when a gunman opened fire at the Washington Hilton. The chaos forced the evacuation of President Donald Trump and other senior officials, leaving one Secret Service agent injured before the suspect was apprehended by authorities. In the hours that followed, the man arrested was identified as Cole Tomas Allen, a 31-year-old engineer and part-time tutor from Torrance, California.
As the identity of the alleged shooter spread across social media, a far stranger detail emerged. An X (formerly Twitter) account with the display name Henry Martinez had posted a single, cryptic message over two years prior to the event. Dated December 22, 2023, the post contained just two words: “Cole Allen”. This seemingly inexplicable coincidence sent the internet into a frenzy, fueling wild theories that continue to captivate millions online.
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The Viral Tweet and a Shocking ‘Prediction’
Cole Allen
— Henry Martinez (@HenryMa79561893) December 22, 2023
The X account, @HenryMa79561893, was created in December 2023 and, aside from its only tweet, had remained completely dormant. The account features a cartoon Pepe the Frog image and has no bio, adding to its enigmatic nature. When news broke that the suspect in the high-profile shooting was named Cole Tomas Allen, the dormant post resurfaced almost instantly, accumulating well over 11 million views in just a few hours.
The tweet’s premonitory nature led to a wave of speculation, with users flocking to the post to leave comments ranging from dark humour to serious inquiry. “Henry, the FBI would like to speak to you,” one user joked. “Time travel is real,” and “Glitch in the simulation,” read others. The authenticity of the tweet has been confirmed, leaving many to wonder if the post was a bizarre coincidence or something far more calculated.
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A NASA Connection and the ‘Time Traveler’ Theory
THE ONLY POST BY THIS ACCOUNT WAS IN 2023
IT NAMED THE SHOOTER ‘CODY ALLEN’
What is going on? pic.twitter.com/0qOpl3gIvH
— Sulaiman Ahmed (@ShaykhSulaiman) April 26, 2026
Driving the speculation to an even deeper level are the alleged professional ties between the name on the post and the suspect. Reports have surfaced that a person named Henry Martinez was listed as an author on a NASA research paper in 2014. This same year, Cole Tomas Allen completed an internship at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), working on artificial intelligence models for mapping planets . This intersection of names and places has led some to speculate that the “Henry Martinez” who wrote the NASA paper could be connected to the owner of the X account. NASA has not commented on the matter.
Online sleuths have also pointed to the background image of the Henry Martinez X account, which they claim is a “Time Machine” photo. This detail has become a cornerstone of the most popular theory: that the post was not a prediction but a record of a journey through time. According to this idea, the person behind the account had knowledge of events that had not yet occurred, and the tweet was their way of leaving a trace of their travels.
While no verified link exists between Henry Martinez and Cole Allen, the combination of the timely tweet, shared NASA history, and the “time machine” imagery has turned a real-life tragedy into one of the most perplexing internet mysteries in recent memory.
