By Michael Biesecker and Alanna Durkin Richer
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — Law enforcement officials were working July 14 to learn more about the 20-year-old Pennsylvania man who they say tried to assassinate former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally and to determine what drove him to open fire, killing one spectator.
Authorities identified Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, as the shooter who fired from a rooftop outside the rally venue in nearby Butler before he was killed by the Secret Service.
An FBI official said late July 13 that a motive had not yet been determined. Public court records in Pennsylvania show no past criminal cases against Crooks, who graduated from high school two years ago.
Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, said on social media the upper part of his right ear was pierced in the shooting. Two spectators were critically injured, authorities said. The man killed was Corey Comperatore, a former fire chief from the area who Pennsylvania’s governor says died a “hero” by diving onto his family to protect them.
Relatives of Crooks didn’t immediately respond to messages from The Associated Press. His father, Matthew Crooks, told CNN late July 13 that he was trying to figure out “what the hell is going on” but wouldn’t speak about his son until after he talked to law enforcement.
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, appearing slight of build and wearing glasses. The school district said it will cooperate fully with investigators. His senior year, Crooks was among several students given an award for math and science, according to a Tribune-Review story at the time.
Jason Kohler, who said he attended the same high school but did not share any classes with Crooks, said Crooks was bullied at school and sat alone at lunch time. Other students mocked him for the way he dressed, such as hunting outfits, Kohler said.
“He was bullied almost every day,” Kohler told reporters. “He was just an outcast, and you know how kids are nowadays.”
Crooks’ 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 gave $15 to a progressive political action committee on Jan. 20, 2021, the day President Joe Biden was sworn into office.
Butler County district attorney Richard Goldinger told AP on July 14 that Crooks had been previously unknown to investigators in his county and had not been on their radar. He said the investigation had so far not turned up any evidence that he had coordinated with anyone else in the region.
A blockade had been set up July 14 preventing traffic near Crooks’ house, which is in an enclave of modest brick houses in the hills outside blue-collar Pittsburgh and about an hour’s drive from the site of the Trump rally. Police cars were stationed at an intersection near the house and officers were seen walking through 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 bomb squad pulled up to the home late Sunday morning.
Law enforcement recovered an AR-style rifle at the scene of the shooting, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing investigation.
Investigators believe the weapon was bought by the father at least six months ago, two law enforcement officials told AP.
The officials said federal agents were still working to understand when and how Thomas Crooks obtained the gun. The officials were not authorized to publicly discuss details of the investigation and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.
An AP analysis of more than a dozen videos and photos from the scene of the Trump rally, as well as satellite imagery of the site, shows the shooter was able to get close to the stage where the former president was speaking.
A video posted to social media and geolocated by AP shows Crooks wearing a gray t-shirt with a black American flag on the right arm lying motionless on the roof of a manufacturing plant just north of the Butler Farm Show grounds where Trump’s rally was held.
The roof where Crooks lay was less than 150 meters (164 yards) from where Trump was speaking, a distance from which a decent marksman could reasonably hit a human-sized target. For reference, 150 meters is a distance at which U.S. Army recruits must hit a scaled human-sized silhouette to qualify with the M-16 rifle.
Images of Crooks’ body reviewed by AP shows that at the time of the shooting he appears to have been wearing a T-shirt from Demolition Ranch, a popular YouTube channel with more than 11.6 million subscribers that regularly posts videos that show creator Matt Carriker firing off handguns and assault rifles at targets that include human mannequins and vehicles.
Carriker, who lives in Texas, did not respond to a phone message or email on July 14, but posted a photo of Crooks’ bloody corpse wearing his brand’s T-shirts on social media with the comment, “What the hell.”
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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.
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