Father about Trump assassin "What the hell is going on?"
After the assassination attempt on US presidential candidate Donald Trump, investigators assume that the gunman who was killed acted alone. US authorities have identified him as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks
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- US law enforcement authorities identified the shooter as Thomas Matthew Crooks, a 20-year-old man from Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, who was killed in the attempted assassination of Donald Trump.
- Crooks used an AR-15 style rifle legally purchased from his father and left explosive materials in his vehicle.
- Crooks had recently graduated with a degree in engineering and worked at a nursing home without exhibiting any noticeable behavioral problems.
- Investigators found no evidence of strong political beliefs or a history of mental health problems.
- Crooks' family and former classmates were shocked by his crime.
US authorities identified the shooter in the Trump assassination attempt as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, which is about an hour from the crime scene.
Crooks was shot by Secret Service agents on Saturday, just moments after he opened fire, killing a campaign rally spectator, seriously injuring two others and wounding former President Donald Trump in the ear. Crooks had opened fire from a rooftop at the rally where former President Donald Trump was speaking.
Father: "What the hell is going on?"
According to law enforcement officials, the gun, a semi-automatic AR-15 rifle found at the scene next to the shooter's body, was quickly traced to Crooks' father. This helped determine the identity of the shooter, as he had no identification on him.
The gun had been legally purchased by Crooks' father. It is still unclear how the shooter obtained the weapon. The family of the perpetrator is cooperating with the investigators. Late Saturday night, Crooks' father, Matthew Crooks, told CNN he was trying to figure out "what the hell is going on here".
Law enforcement officials found materials for two explosive devices in Thomas Matthew Crooks' car that he drove to the event, and even a third in his apartment, according to a person with knowledge of the investigation. The FBI is investigating the incident as an attempted murder and possible case of domestic terrorism.
Kevin P. Rojek, senior FBI official in Pittsburgh, told The New York Times that Crooks is believed to have acted alone and there are no other safety concerns for the public.
No motive identified yet
According to a federal law enforcement official, dozens of FBI agents, analysts and evidence technicians from various departments have gathered to work on the case. US President Biden said on Sunday that officials had not yet identified a motive.
The FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit will try to profile the shooter to understand his motivations, he said. The shooter had no criminal or mental health history listed in Pennsylvania public court records. He had not previously been targeted by federal law enforcement.
Investigators scoured Crooks' online presence and cell phone, but so far have found no evidence of strong political beliefs. In fact, the few clues he left behind were contradictory: Crooks was a registered Republican but had donated $15 to a progressive project in 2021 ("Progressive Turnout Project", a liberal voter participation group). Crooks' parents worked as social workers. State voter records show his father registered as a Libertarian and his mother as a Democrat.
Perpetrator lived in middle class neighborhood
Crooks grew up in the relatively affluent suburb of Bethel Park in the South Hills area of Pittsburgh, about an hour's drive from the crime scene, according to the New York Times. His parents both work in consulting. His father worked for a local behavioral health provider, according to his LinkedIn profile.
The neighborhood where the family lives is "pretty firmly middle class, maybe upper middle class," Dan Grzybek, who represents the area on the borough council, said in an interview Sunday. Grzybek met the shooter's parents briefly last year when he was campaigning.
Classmate thought perpetrator was "incredibly intelligent"
He recalled that they seemed friendly and were open to his program. He said it's not uncommon to have families where different members have different political beliefs. "In Bethel Park, there's a great diversity of backgrounds and ideals and definitely a lot of mixed households," he said.
Just two months ago, Crooks graduated from the Community College of Allegheny County with an associate degree in engineering. Crooks is featured in a commercial for the investment firm BlackRock that was filmed at his high school, where he sits in the front row of an economics class.
He worked on the nutrition plans at Bethel Park Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Center until before his death. Staff at the nursing home say his work was not a cause for "concern."
Two former classmates who had attended Bethel Park High School with the shooter also said they had not noticed any warning signs. One of the classmates, Zach Bradford, explained that he had taken American history and government classes with him, and that Crooks seemed "incredibly intelligent" and his views seemed "slightly right-wing" in high school.
A classmate, who wished to remain anonymous, said Crooks had a group of friends who were "pretty conservative," some of whom wore Trump hats.
Jason Kohler, 21, who attended the same high school, told CNN that Crooks had been bullied by other students and seemed like a loner. Crooks had "no facial expression" when he walked through the school hallways, Kohler said.
Member of a shooting club
Crooks was one of 20 students who received a $500 prize for math and science in 2022, according to local news reports. In April 2022, he appeared in a video on the school's Facebook page in which he was bent over a laptop explaining programming to another student.
On Sunday, evidence emerged of how Crooks may have been trained in the use of firearms. The Clairton Sportsmen's Club, a wooded facility south of Pittsburgh that has a shooting range, confirmed that Crooks had been a member.
In a statement released by legal counsel, the club expressed condolences to the family of Corey Comperatore, the bystander killed in the Trump assassination. "Obviously, the club condemns the senseless act of violence that took place yesterday. The club also offers its sincere condolences to the Comperatore family and sends prayers to all those injured, including the former President."
Assassination attempts on US politicians at a glance
1865: Abraham Lincoln - killed: Abraham Lincoln was the first US president to be killed by assassination. While attending a special performance of the comedy "Our American Cousin" at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., he is shot in the back. The perpetrator is John Wilkes Booth, an actor and fanatical supporter of the Confederates, who had been defeated in the Civil War two days earlier. Booth shoots the president in the head at close range with his single-shot pistol. Lincoln is brought unconscious into a neighboring building and given medical treatment. The next morning, Lincoln is dead. As it turns out, the assassination is part of a conspiracy against several members of the US government. Lincoln's assassin Booth is later shot dead, four co-conspirators, including a woman, are hanged three months later.
Image: Imago/Kena Images
1881: James Garfield - killed: The assassination attempt on American President James Garfield also ends fatally. On July 2, 1881, six months after his inauguration, Garfield was shot at a train station in Washington, D.C.. His murderer, Charles Guiteau, a 39-year-old lawyer and former supporter of his, is said to have been dissatisfied with not getting a job in Garfield's administration. Other sources describe him as mentally disturbed. The American doctor and inventor Alexander Graham Bell tried to find and remove the bullet in Garfield's chest using a specially developed device. In vain: the president died of blood poisoning a few weeks later and Guiteau was executed in June 1882.
Image: Imago/Gemini Collection
1901: William McKinley - killed: US President William McKinley is shot at close range in Buffalo, New York, in September 1901. After a speech at the Pan-American Exposition, he was shaking hands with several people when the anarchist Leon Czolgosz pointed a gun at him and pulled the trigger. At first it appears that the injuries are not fatal, but then gangrene sets in and McKinley dies. Assassin Czolgosz is executed in the electric chair.
Image: Imago/Gemini Collection
1912: Theodore Roosevelt - survived: This X-ray shows Roosevelt's chest after the attempted assassination in October 1912. "Teddy", as Roosevelt was also known, is attacked in Milwaukee shortly before an election campaign appearance. By this time, he had already served two terms as president and was running again as an independent candidate. Roosevelt is not seriously injured: a spectacle case and the folded manuscript of his speech muffle the shot. The perpetrator, John Schrank, is arrested and spends the rest of his life in psychiatric hospitals.
Image: Imago/UIG
1933: Franklin D. Roosevelt - survived: Donald Trump speaks under a huge photo of President Franklin Roosevelt during an event to mark the 75th anniversary of D-Day. A few weeks before being sworn in as president, Roosevelt is giving a speech from the back of his open car in Miami in February 1933 when five shots are fired. Roosevelt is not hit, but the mayor of Chicago, Anton Cermak, who is speaking to Roosevelt, is injured and dies 19 days later. The perpetrator is sentenced to death.
Image: imago images/ZUMA Press
1950: Harry S. Truman - survives: In November 1950, Truman is staying at Blair House opposite the White House when two gunmen break in. Truman is not injured in the assassination attempt, but a White House police officer and one of the assailants are killed in the exchange of gunfire and two other White House police officers are wounded. The shooter, Oscar Collazo, is sentenced to death. In 1952, Truman commutes the sentence to life imprisonment. The photo shows the assassin Oscar Collazo, who is taken to an ambulance seriously injured.
Image: Imago/Granger Historical Picture Archive
1963: John F. Kennedy - killed: The photo shows the Kennedys in Dallas in their open vehicle a few minutes before the fatal shots are fired at the motorcade. Two rifle shots are fired during the assassination. Lee Harvey Oswald is arrested as a suspect and killed two days later in police custody by nightclub owner Jack Ruby. More than 2000 books have been written about the assassination - and yet the murder remains a mystery to this day: conspiracy theories were soon circulating, but all the evidence pointed back to a single perpetrator with a thirst for revenge.
Image: imago images/Everett Collection
1968: Robert F. Kennedy - killed: Robert F. Kennedy, brother of the assassinated President John F., is shot dead as a US presidential candidate in 1968 at the age of 42 at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles by a 24-year-old Palestinian named Sirhan Sirhan. The seriously injured Kennedy is said to have whispered in the ear of the paramedics who rushed to lift him from the floor onto a stretcher: "Don't lift me." His last words before he lost consciousness. Despite a four-hour operation, his condition remained critical. Kennedy is pronounced dead 26 hours after the assassination.
Image: Imago/Pond5 Images
1972: George C. Wallace - survives: Like Trump, George Wallace is a presidential candidate, but for the Democrats. In 1972, he is shot at a campaign event in Maryland. As a result, he is paralyzed from the waist down. Wallace wins the primaries in Maryland, Michigan, Tennessee and North Carolina and speaks in a wheelchair at the Democratic National Convention in Miami in the summer of 1972. However, he is not nominated as a presidential candidate.
1975: Gerald Ford - survived: Not quite as close as Trump: The photo shows Ford flinching when shot during the assassination attempt by Sara Jane Moore. The bullet, fired from a distance of twelve meters, misses Ford by just twelve centimeters. Ford is doubly lucky: this is the second assassination attempt within three weeks. In the first attempt, Charles Manson supporter Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme points a semi-automatic weapon at him. However, the gun does not go off.
Image: imago images/Everett Collection
1981: Ronald Reagan - survived: President Reagan has just given a speech at the Hilton Hotel in Washington D.C. and waves to his fans on his way to the motorcade. Then shots are fired. Seconds after the shots are fired, reporters and Secret Service agents manage to push the assassin to the ground and hold him down. Reagan narrowly escapes with his life, three other people are injured. The criminal proceedings against the assassin Hinckley later end with an acquittal by reason of insanity. Shortly before the emergency operation in hospital, the Republican Reagan is said to have asked the surgical team: "Please tell me you're all Republicans."
Image: Imago/Everett Collection
2005: George W. Bush - survived: George W. Bush visits Georgia in 2005 and takes part in a rally in Tbilisi with the then President Mikhail Saakashvili when a hand grenade is thrown. The grenade missed Bush by about 100 meters and did not explode, although it was live. A red handkerchief wrapped tightly around it is said to have prevented the safety lever from being released. The Georgian assassin Vladimir Arutyunian is sentenced to life imprisonment.
Image: Wikipedia
2011: Barack Obama - survived: A man from Idaho shoots at the American president's official residence from a parked car. The bullets narrowly miss the guards. Unlike their younger daughter Sasha, the incumbent President Barack Obama and his wife were not in the White House at the time. After his arrest, Oscar Ortega-Hernandez admits that he wanted to kill Barack Obama. He is sentenced to 21 years in prison for attempted murder. As with Trump, the assassination attempt led to discussions about the role of the Secret Service, which was also accused of failure at the time.
Image: Imago/ABACAPRESS
2024: Donald Trump - survived: On July 13, a young American carries out an attack on Donald Trump at an election rally in Pennsylvania. Trump survives the attack with minor injuries to his right ear. One spectator is killed and at least two other people are seriously injured. The 20-year-old perpetrator, Thomas Matthew Crooks, is shot dead at the scene by the Secret Service.
Image: AP
1865: Abraham Lincoln - killed: Abraham Lincoln was the first US president to be killed by assassination. While attending a special performance of the comedy "Our American Cousin" at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., he is shot in the back. The perpetrator is John Wilkes Booth, an actor and fanatical supporter of the Confederates, who had been defeated in the Civil War two days earlier. Booth shoots the president in the head at close range with his single-shot pistol. Lincoln is brought unconscious into a neighboring building and given medical treatment. The next morning, Lincoln is dead. As it turns out, the assassination is part of a conspiracy against several members of the US government. Lincoln's assassin Booth is later shot dead, four co-conspirators, including a woman, are hanged three months later.
Image: Imago/Kena Images
1881: James Garfield - killed: The assassination attempt on American President James Garfield also ends fatally. On July 2, 1881, six months after his inauguration, Garfield was shot at a train station in Washington, D.C.. His murderer, Charles Guiteau, a 39-year-old lawyer and former supporter of his, is said to have been dissatisfied with not getting a job in Garfield's administration. Other sources describe him as mentally disturbed. The American doctor and inventor Alexander Graham Bell tried to find and remove the bullet in Garfield's chest using a specially developed device. In vain: the president died of blood poisoning a few weeks later and Guiteau was executed in June 1882.
Image: Imago/Gemini Collection
1901: William McKinley - killed: US President William McKinley is shot at close range in Buffalo, New York, in September 1901. After a speech at the Pan-American Exposition, he was shaking hands with several people when the anarchist Leon Czolgosz pointed a gun at him and pulled the trigger. At first it appears that the injuries are not fatal, but then gangrene sets in and McKinley dies. Assassin Czolgosz is executed in the electric chair.
Image: Imago/Gemini Collection
1912: Theodore Roosevelt - survived: This X-ray shows Roosevelt's chest after the attempted assassination in October 1912. "Teddy", as Roosevelt was also known, is attacked in Milwaukee shortly before an election campaign appearance. By this time, he had already served two terms as president and was running again as an independent candidate. Roosevelt is not seriously injured: a spectacle case and the folded manuscript of his speech muffle the shot. The perpetrator, John Schrank, is arrested and spends the rest of his life in psychiatric hospitals.
Image: Imago/UIG
1933: Franklin D. Roosevelt - survived: Donald Trump speaks under a huge photo of President Franklin Roosevelt during an event to mark the 75th anniversary of D-Day. A few weeks before being sworn in as president, Roosevelt is giving a speech from the back of his open car in Miami in February 1933 when five shots are fired. Roosevelt is not hit, but the mayor of Chicago, Anton Cermak, who is speaking to Roosevelt, is injured and dies 19 days later. The perpetrator is sentenced to death.
Image: imago images/ZUMA Press
1950: Harry S. Truman - survives: In November 1950, Truman is staying at Blair House opposite the White House when two gunmen break in. Truman is not injured in the assassination attempt, but a White House police officer and one of the assailants are killed in the exchange of gunfire and two other White House police officers are wounded. The shooter, Oscar Collazo, is sentenced to death. In 1952, Truman commutes the sentence to life imprisonment. The photo shows the assassin Oscar Collazo, who is taken to an ambulance seriously injured.
Image: Imago/Granger Historical Picture Archive
1963: John F. Kennedy - killed: The photo shows the Kennedys in Dallas in their open vehicle a few minutes before the fatal shots are fired at the motorcade. Two rifle shots are fired during the assassination. Lee Harvey Oswald is arrested as a suspect and killed two days later in police custody by nightclub owner Jack Ruby. More than 2000 books have been written about the assassination - and yet the murder remains a mystery to this day: conspiracy theories were soon circulating, but all the evidence pointed back to a single perpetrator with a thirst for revenge.
Image: imago images/Everett Collection
1968: Robert F. Kennedy - killed: Robert F. Kennedy, brother of the assassinated President John F., is shot dead as a US presidential candidate in 1968 at the age of 42 at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles by a 24-year-old Palestinian named Sirhan Sirhan. The seriously injured Kennedy is said to have whispered in the ear of the paramedics who rushed to lift him from the floor onto a stretcher: "Don't lift me." His last words before he lost consciousness. Despite a four-hour operation, his condition remained critical. Kennedy is pronounced dead 26 hours after the assassination.
Image: Imago/Pond5 Images
1972: George C. Wallace - survives: Like Trump, George Wallace is a presidential candidate, but for the Democrats. In 1972, he is shot at a campaign event in Maryland. As a result, he is paralyzed from the waist down. Wallace wins the primaries in Maryland, Michigan, Tennessee and North Carolina and speaks in a wheelchair at the Democratic National Convention in Miami in the summer of 1972. However, he is not nominated as a presidential candidate.
1975: Gerald Ford - survived: Not quite as close as Trump: The photo shows Ford flinching when shot during the assassination attempt by Sara Jane Moore. The bullet, fired from a distance of twelve meters, misses Ford by just twelve centimeters. Ford is doubly lucky: this is the second assassination attempt within three weeks. In the first attempt, Charles Manson supporter Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme points a semi-automatic weapon at him. However, the gun does not go off.
Image: imago images/Everett Collection
1981: Ronald Reagan - survived: President Reagan has just given a speech at the Hilton Hotel in Washington D.C. and waves to his fans on his way to the motorcade. Then shots are fired. Seconds after the shots are fired, reporters and Secret Service agents manage to push the assassin to the ground and hold him down. Reagan narrowly escapes with his life, three other people are injured. The criminal proceedings against the assassin Hinckley later end with an acquittal by reason of insanity. Shortly before the emergency operation in hospital, the Republican Reagan is said to have asked the surgical team: "Please tell me you're all Republicans."
Image: Imago/Everett Collection
2005: George W. Bush - survived: George W. Bush visits Georgia in 2005 and takes part in a rally in Tbilisi with the then President Mikhail Saakashvili when a hand grenade is thrown. The grenade missed Bush by about 100 meters and did not explode, although it was live. A red handkerchief wrapped tightly around it is said to have prevented the safety lever from being released. The Georgian assassin Vladimir Arutyunian is sentenced to life imprisonment.
Image: Wikipedia
2011: Barack Obama - survived: A man from Idaho shoots at the American president's official residence from a parked car. The bullets narrowly miss the guards. Unlike their younger daughter Sasha, the incumbent President Barack Obama and his wife were not in the White House at the time. After his arrest, Oscar Ortega-Hernandez admits that he wanted to kill Barack Obama. He is sentenced to 21 years in prison for attempted murder. As with Trump, the assassination attempt led to discussions about the role of the Secret Service, which was also accused of failure at the time.
Image: Imago/ABACAPRESS
2024: Donald Trump - survived: On July 13, a young American carries out an attack on Donald Trump at an election rally in Pennsylvania. Trump survives the attack with minor injuries to his right ear. One spectator is killed and at least two other people are seriously injured. The 20-year-old perpetrator, Thomas Matthew Crooks, is shot dead at the scene by the Secret Service.
Image: AP
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