NY.– For Thomas Crooks, the suburban Pittsburgh nursing home where he served meals and washed dishes for $16 an hour was another lonely part of a nearly invisible life.
He was friendly but distant, a co-worker said, eating alone in the cafeteria and rarely speaking to anyone.
But as western Pennsylvania prepared last week for the boisterous spectacle of hosting a rally for former President Donald J. Trump, Crooks spoke to his bosses with one request, police officials said: He asked for permission to take Saturday off.
He told them he had something important to do.
That is one of the few clues that have emerged so far that the 20-year-old engineering graduate was planning to become a political assassin.
A week after Crooks opened fire at the rally and was shot dead by the Secret Service, his ideology and motives remain a vexing question for investigators and those who crossed his path.
In dozens of interviews, former classmates, teachers and neighbors said they still can’t square their memories of Crooks — an awkward, bright teenager who liked to tinker with computers and spent his weekends playing video games — with the image of a man armed with his father’s AR-15-style rifle on the roof and aiming at the former president.
Trump suffered an ear injury and three spectators were injured, one of whom died.
“I have trouble with that because I’ve seen horrible pictures of that person who I had standing next to me, raising their hand to answer in class,” said Xavier Harmon, who saw Crooks almost daily in the computer science class he taught at a technical college.
Investigators have discovered what may now be troubling signs: The shooter’s phone showed he had read news reports about the teenager who killed four students at Oxford High School in Michigan.
Crooks has received multiple packages, including several marked “hazardous material,” in recent months.
He searched the Internet for information on “major depressive disorders” on a cell phone that was later found in his home.
He also targeted political figures, including Trump, President Biden and Attorney General Merrick Garland, FBI officials told members of Congress.
He looked up information about Trump’s July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, as well as the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
Although researchers have found no evidence that Crooks had strong political beliefs or an ideological motivation.
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