WASHINGTON – The 20-year-old nursing home employee from suburban Pittsburgh who tried to murder Former President Donald Trump was a registered Republican who placed explosives in the vehicle he drove to his campaign rally, an hour from his home.
Law enforcement authorities were working Sunday to learn more about Thomas Matthew Crooks, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, to determine what motivated him to open fire on the rally from a nearby rooftop, killing a bystanderbefore being shot dead by the Secret Service.
The FBI said Sunday it has not yet identified any underlying ideology or threatening writings or social media posts by Crooks, who graduated from high school two years ago and has no prior criminal cases against him, according to public court records. The FBI said it believes Crooks acted alone.
Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, said on social media that the top part of his right ear was pierced in the shooting. Two spectators were seriously injured, authorities said. The man killed was Corey Comperatore, 50, a former area fire chief who, according to Pennsylvania’s governor, died a “hero” when he dove into his family to protect them.
Relatives of Crooks did not immediately respond to messages from The Associated Press. His father, Matthew Crooks, told CNN on Saturday night that he was trying to figure out “what the hell is going on” but wouldn’t talk about his son until he spoke to authorities. An FBI official told reporters that Crooks’ family is cooperating with investigators.
Crooks graduated from Bethel Park High School in 2022. In a video of the school’s graduation ceremony posted online, Crooks can be seen crossing the stage to receive his diploma, looking slight and wearing glasses. The school district said it will cooperate fully with investigators. In his senior year, Crooks was among several students who received awards in math and science, according to a Tribune Review history at the time.
Crooks tried out for the school’s rifle team but was rejected because he was a poor shot, said Frederick Mach, the team’s current captain who was a few years behind Crooks in high school.
Jason Kohler, who said he attended the same school but did not share any classes with Crooks, said Crooks was bullied at school and sat alone at lunch. Other students made fun of him for the clothes he wore, which included hunting gear, Kohler said.
“He was bullied almost every day,” Kohler told reporters. “He was just an outcast, and you know how kids are these days.”
Crooks worked at a nursing home as a dietary aide, a job that often involves food preparation. Marcie Grimm, administrator at Bethel Park Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation, said in a statement that she was “shocked and saddened to learn of his involvement.” Grimm added that Crooks had a clean background check when he was hired.
The bandits’ political leanings were not immediately clear. Records show Crooks was registered as a Republican voter in Pennsylvania, but federal campaign finance reports also show he donated $15 to a progressive political action committee on January 20, 2021, the day President Joe Biden took office.
Butler County District Attorney Richard Goldinger told the AP on Sunday that Crooks was previously unknown to investigators in his county and was not on their radar. He said the investigation has so far found no evidence that he coordinated with anyone else in the region.
A blockade was set up Sunday blocking traffic near Crooks’ home, which is in an enclave of modest brick homes in the hills outside Pittsburgh and about an hour’s drive from the Trump rally site. Police cars were parked at an intersection near the house and officers were seen walking around the neighborhood.
Bomb-making materials were found inside Crooks’ vehicle near the Trump rally and at his home, according to two officials who were not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. A white Allegheny County police truck, identified as a bomb squad, stopped in front of the house on Sunday night.
Crooks used an AR-style rifle, which authorities said they believe was purchased by his father. Kevin Rojek, FBI special agent in charge in Pittsburgh, said investigators still don’t know whether he took the gun without his father’s permission.
A local police officer went up to the roof and found Crooks, who pointed his rifle at the officer. The officer retreated down the stairs and Crooks quickly fired toward Trump, and that’s when Secret Service snipers shot him, said the officials, who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.
A video posted on social media and geotagged by the AP shows Crooks wearing a gray T-shirt with a black American flag on his right arm, motionless on the roof of a factory north of the Butler Farm Show grounds where Trump’s rally was held.
The roof where Crooks was lying was less than 150 meters (164 yards) from where Trump was speaking, a distance from which a decent sniper could reasonably hit a human-sized target. That’s a distance at which U.S. Army recruits must achieve a human-scale silhouette to qualify with the M-16 rifle.
Images of Crooks’ body analyzed by the AP show that he appeared to be wearing a Demolition Ranch T-shirt, a popular YouTube channel which regularly posts videos of its creator firing handguns and assault rifles at targets that include human dummies.
Matt Carriker, the Texas-based creator of Demolition Ranch, did not respond to a phone message or email Sunday, but posted a photo of Crooks’ bloodied corpse wearing his brand’s T-shirt on social media with the comment “What the hell . ”
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Mustian reported from New York. Associated Press journalists Marc Levy in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Julie Smyth and Joshua Bickel in Bethel Park, Michael R. Sisak in New York, Michael Kunzelman in Silver Spring Maryland, Mike Balsamo in Chicago and Colleen Long in Washington contributed.
