The 20-year-old nursing home employee from suburban Pittsburgh who plotted to assassinate former President Donald Trump was a Republican and packed explosives in a car heading to a campaign rally an hour away from his home.
Law enforcement officials were trying to get more information about the suspect, Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, to determine a motive for opening fire from a rooftop near the rally, killing one spectator before being shot dead by Secret Service agents.
The FBI said Sunday that it has yet to identify the ideology, threatening texts or social media posts behind Crooks. Crooks graduated from high school two years ago and has no prior criminal charges, according to unsealed court records. The FBI said it believes Crooks acted alone.
Trump, who is considered the Republican presidential nominee, said on social media that he had received a piercing in the top part of his right ear during the shooting.
Police have blocked off a road in Bethel Park. (Joshua A. Bickel/Associated Press)
Two spectators were seriously injured, authorities said. The man who died was a former area fire chief, Corey Comperatore, 50, whom Pennsylvania’s governor described as a “hero” who died trying to protect his family.
Crooks’ father, Matthew Crooks, told CNN on Saturday that he was trying to figure out “what the hell is going on” but would not speak about his son until he had spoken with police.
Crooks graduated from Bethel Park High School in 2022. A video of the school’s graduation ceremony posted online shows a skinny, bespectacled Crooks walking across the stage to receive his diploma.
Crooks tried to join the school’s rifle team but was turned away because he was a poor shooter, said current team captain Frederick Mach, who was a few years younger than Crooks at the school.
Jason Kohler said he attended the same high school as Crooks but they were not in the same classes, and that Crooks was bullied at school and would sit alone at lunch. Other students would make fun of the clothes he wore, including hunting gear, Kohler said.
Police tape blocks a road in Bethel Park (Joshua A. Bickel/AP)
“He was bullied almost daily,” Kohler told reporters. “He was a total outcast. You know what kids are like these days.”
Crooks worked in a nursing home as a nutritional aide, a job that primarily involved preparing meals.
“We were shocked and saddened to learn of his involvement,” Marcy Grimm, administrator at Bethel Park Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation, said in a statement.
Grimm added that Crooks had a clean background check when he was hired.
Crooks’ political leanings were not immediately clear — records show he was registered as a Republican voter in Pennsylvania, but federal campaign finance reports also show he donated money to a progressive political action committee on Jan. 20, 2021, the day President Joe Biden was sworn in as president.
Butler County District Attorney Richard Goldinger told The Associated Press on Sunday that Crooks was not previously known to county investigators and was not a target of the investigation.
Thomas Matthew Crooks attends the Bethel Park High School Class of 2022 graduation ceremony (Bethel Park School District/Associated Press)
He said investigations so far have not found any evidence that he was conspiring with anyone else in the area.
Traffic was blocked off Sunday near Crooks’ home, in a working-class neighborhood of modest brick homes in the hills outside Pittsburgh, about an hour’s drive from the Trump rally.
Police cars were parked at the intersection near the house and officers could be seen walking around the neighborhood.
Bomb-making materials were found in Crooks’ vehicle and home near the Trump rally, according to two officials. A white Allegheny County police truck claiming to be a bomb disposal unit arrived at Crooks’ home on Sunday.
Crooks was using an AR-style rifle that authorities believe was purchased by his father, police said.
Kevin Rojek, FBI special agent in charge of Pittsburgh, said investigators don’t yet know whether he took the gun without his father’s permission.
Roads are closed in Bethel Park (Jean J. Puskar/Associated Press)
A local police officer climbed onto the roof and confronted Crooks, who pointed a rifle at the officer.
The officer climbed down the ladder and Crooks quickly shot at Trump, at which point a Secret Service sniper shot and killed Crooks, officials said.
Video posted on social media and geolocated by The Associated Press shows Crooks, wearing a gray T-shirt with a black American flag on his right arm, lying motionless on the roof of a manufacturing plant just north of the Butler Farms exhibit where Trump’s rally was held.
The roof where Crooks was lying was less than 150 meters from where Trump was speaking, close enough for a skilled marksman to successfully hit a human-sized target — the distance at which U.S. Army recruits must shoot a scaled-down, human-sized silhouette to be certified with an M-16 rifle.
Photographs of Crooks’ body reviewed by The Associated Press show he was wearing a T-shirt from Demolition Ranch, a popular YouTube channel that regularly posts videos of people firing handguns and assault rifles at human mannequins and other targets.
Matt Carriker, founder of Texas-based Demolition Ranch, did not respond to phone and email messages Sunday but posted a photo on social media of Crooks’ body wearing a T-shirt from his company’s brand with the comment, “What the hell?”
