What we know about gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks who shot at Trump at his Pennsylvania rally
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The FBI identified 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks as the suspect involved in the assassination attempt of former US president Donald Trump on Saturday.
Trump was speaking at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania when the gunman shot at him.
Multiple shots were fired towards the stage, and Trump was rushed off by law enforcement with blood visibly streaming from his ear. The shots killed one attendee and critically injured two others, the Secret Service said.
Later on Truth Social, Trump confirmed that one of the bullets had hit his ear. The Secret Service said the gunman was shot and killed at the scene.
Who was Thomas Matthew Crooks?
The FBI held a press conference a short while later, initially stating they were using his DNA for biometric confirmation as he carried no identification. Later, they identified him as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, a resident of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania.
However, there are no clues yet as to Crooks’ motive for the attack, which is being treated as an “assassination attempt”.
“The FBI has identified Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, as the subject involved in the assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump on July 13, in Butler, Pennsylvania,” the FBI’s statement read.
“This remains an active and ongoing investigation, and anyone with information that may assist with the investigation is encouraged to submit photos or videos online,” the statement added.
Crooks lived in the Pittsburgh suburb of Bethel Park, located around 56km south of where Trump held his rally. Local media reports indicated that Crooks graduated from Bethel Park High School in 2022, and received a $500 “star award” that year from the National Math and Science Initiative.
He was registered to vote as a Republican, according to listings in Pennsylvania’s voter database that matched his name, age, and address linked to his public records, CNN reported.
However, federal campaign finance reports show that he had made a $15 contribution to a Democratic-aligned political action committee called Progressive Turnout Project on 20 January 2021, the report added.
Law enforcement officials said that Crooks fired from an elevated shed outside the perimeter on Saturday, around 200 feet to 300 feet away from the podium where Trump was, and reportedly used an AR-15-type semi-automatic rifle.
A witness, identified only as Greg, said that he tried to alert Secret Service agents to a rifle-wielding man he spotted “bear crawling” onto the roof of a nearby building before gunshots rang through the crowd.
“We’re pointing at the guy crawling up the roof. We could clearly see him with a rifle,” he told the BBC.
“I’m standing there pointing at him for two to three minutes. Secret Service is looking at us from the top of the barn, I’m pointing at the roof…and next thing you know, five shots rang out,” he added.
Kevin Rojek, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Pittsburgh field office, said they were still reviewing the security detail the Secret Service had in place and confirmed that officials only discovered Crooks was on the roof when he began firing, raising questions about security lapses.
“We’re still working through the security apparatus that the Secret Service had in place, what potentially happened,” he said.
“There’s going to be a long investigation into exactly what took place and how the individual was able to get access to the location, what type of weapon he had. All that is really days, weeks, and months of investigation.”
In remarks from Delaware, president Joe Biden said that “there’s no place in America for this kind of violence. It’s sick.”
