Suspected Trump Shooter Remembered By Rifle Team Member As ‘Comically Bad Shot’: What We Know About Thomas Matthew Crooks
KEY FACTS
Classmate Jameson Murphy told the Post that Thomas Matthew Crooks wasn't able to make the Bethel Park High School rifle team after missing targets "by close to 20 feet" and described him as a "terrible shot."
Another classmate, who was not named, added that the rifle team coach had concerns about Crooks, saying the former Naval man "knew when someone’s not the greatest person" and had noted Crooks' "crass jokes that weren’t appropriate when there are firearms in the school setting."
The FBI identified the 20-year-old Crooks as the suspected shooter in the early hours of Sunday morning, and said the attack is being investigated as a case of possible domestic terrorism.
In a later update on Sunday night, the FBI said its investigation so far suggests the shooter acted alone, however, “the FBI continues to conduct logical investigative activity to determine if there were any co-conspirators associated with this attack.”
The agency confirmed earlier reports that it had found “suspicious devices” both in the suspect’s home and vehicle, which “have been rendered safe by bomb technicians and are being evaluated at the FBI Laboratory.”
The gunman was not on the FBI’s radar before this incident and special agent in charge Kevin Rojek told reporters “we have not identified an ideology associated with the subject.”
Crooks was shot and killed by Secret Service after firing shots at the Trump campaign event from a nearby building outside the rally and an AR-style rifle was recovered at the scene—which the FBI says was purchased legally.
Crooks was found by a law enforcement officer on the roof of a nearby building moments before shooting at Trump and pointed his rifle at the officer, the Associated Press reported citing an anonymous source, who retreated off the roof moments before the Secret Service fired on Crooks.
Law enforcement officials said they identified Crooks using his DNA and biometric information.
NEWS PEG
Crooks was a 2022 graduate of Bethel Park High School and registered Republican with no criminal history, the New York Times reported. At graduation, he was one of 20 students in his class to win the National Math & Science Initiative Star Awards. In 2021, Crooks donated $15 to the Progressive Turnout Project, a Democratic voter contact campaign in 2021, but did not seem to be otherwise politically involved. Only 20-years-old at the time of the shooting, Crooks was not old enough to have previously voted in a presidential election. He was employed by the Bethel Park Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Center as a dietary aide, according to administrator Marcie Grimm, who said Crooks “performed his job without concern and his background check was clean.” CNN reached Crooks’ father, Matthew Crooks, on Saturday, but the man said he would not speak to the public about his son until he figured out “what the hell is going on” and spoke to law enforcement. Crooks’ classmates have shared disparate accounts of his time in high school. Jason Kohler, who went to the same high school, told the Associated Press that Crooks was “bullied almost every day” and was “just a outcast.” However, another student Mark Sigafoos—who shared classes with Crooks unlike Kohler—told the Philadelphia Inquirer that he was “very kind” and “nerdy” but wasn’t “as harshly bullied as some people are saying.” Another student, Max Smith who took a history class with Crooks told the Enquirer “he definitely was [politically] conservative...It makes me wonder why he would carry out an assassination attempt on the conservative candidate.”
KEY BACKGROUND
Trump was hosting a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday evening, about an hour from Crooks’ hometown of Bethel Park, when several gunshots were fired. Trump ducked behind a podium and was surrounded by Secret Service agents, who ushered him off the stage with blood visible on the right side of his face. Trump later said he was "shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear.” The former president pumped his fist into the air several times as he was escorted away to loud cheers from his audience. The bullets were fired from several hundred feet away, local District Attorney Richard Goldinger told CNN. President Joe Biden said in a statement he is "grateful" to hear Trump was safe and condemned acts of political violence. Local news outlets have reported that the rally attendee killed Saturday was 50-year-old Corey Comperatore, former fire chief of the Buffalo Township, Pennsylvania, volunteer fire department. Two other people also suffered serious injuries. Trump said in a post to Truth Social on Saturday: “We pray for the recovery of those who were wounded, and hold in our hearts the memory of the citizen who was so horribly killed.”
CRUCIAL QUOTE
"We will FEAR NOT, but instead remain resilient in our Faith and Defiant in the face of Wickedness," Trump posted Sunday morning. "Our love goes out to the other victims and their families."
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