White male, 20 years old, from Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, a town located about 60 kilometers from the scene of the crime. Name: Thomas Matthew Crooks. The police file of the suspect in the attack on Donald Trump this Saturday afternoon at a rally of the former president in the small town of Butler was gradually completed in the hours following the assassination attempt.
Among the striking facts that emerged was the fact that the state’s voter registration list lists him as a Republican supporter. In the upcoming November 5 elections, Crooks was expected to participate in a presidential election for the first time; in the last ones he was still a minor. After the shooting, in which Trump was slightly injured, Secret Service snipers killed him. In addition, one electoral attendee died immediately and two others were left in critical condition.
Not much is known about his story or what motivated him to climb onto the roof of a building and open fire on a former president campaigning to return to the White House. There have been some indications, not yet conclusive, that his Republican affiliation was recent.
According to the few details known about his history, Crooks was 17 when he donated $15 (13.7 euros) to ActBlue, a political action committee that raises money for Democratic and left-wing politicians, according to 2021 Federal Election Commission records cited by Reuters. The donation was intended for the Progressive Participation Project, a national group that mobilizes Democratic voters to go to the polls.
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Crooks graduated in 2022 from Bethel Park High School, according to local media Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. He received a “star award” of $500 from the National Math and Science Initiative, the newspaper reported.
Crooks was not immediately identified after the attempted attack. He had no identification on him, authorities said, and other methods were required. Authorities, who held a joint press conference between the FBI and local and state police in which little information was shared, do not yet know what motivated Crooks to attack the former president. His father, Matthew Crooks, 53, told CNN he was still trying to figure out what happened and said he would wait until he spoke to authorities before sharing anything about his son.
The shooter fired from the roof of a nearby industrial building, about 400 feet from the podium where the former president was speaking at one of his usual weekend rallies around the country. Crooks aimed from outside the building, so he didn’t have to go through the airport-like gun detection arches that are routinely deployed at Trump’s campaign events. A witness told the BBC that he warned the police of the suspect’s presence for several minutes, and it took a while for officers to intervene.
In the videos taken by those in attendance, members of the Secret Service can be seen stationed on a structure responding to the gunman’s shots. The exchange began at around 6:10 p.m. It was at that moment that the former president realized that the sudden sharp sounds corresponded to a volley of bullets, he put his hand to his ear, threw himself to the ground to take cover behind the lectern, and the agents in charge of his security threw themselves on top of him to protect Trump’s life with their bodies. Within a few seconds, which seemed like an eternity, they were able to take him to safety in the armored car he usually travels in, a replica of the one he used when he was a tenant of the White House.
Minutes later, a spokesman for the former president said he was “doing fine.” He was examined at a hospital near the rally site. Four hours after the attack, Trump gave his version through Truth, his social network: “I was shot with a bullet that went through the top of my right ear. I knew immediately that something was wrong because I heard a whizzing sound, gunshots, and immediately felt the bullet tearing through the skin. I was bleeding heavily and then I realized what was happening,” he wrote.
In the hours following the attempted attack, which were filled with confusion, photographs of the suspect’s body on the roof after being hit by gunfire also circulated on the networks. The officers then recovered an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle, the weapon most commonly used in mass shootings that occur daily throughout the country.
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