Questions are swirling about Thomas Matthew Crooks, the 20-year-old gunman who was shot dead by Secret Service agents after he tried to assassinate Donald Trump as the former president spoke onstage at a Saturday campaign rally in Pennsylvania.
As details have trickled out, a clearer picture of the would-be assassin has started to emerge.
His background
Crooks lived in Bethel Park, Pa., a midsize town of roughly 33,000 residents about 45 miles south of the Butler Farm Show grounds where the shooting took place. He worked in a local nursing home kitchen not far from his home, BBC reported.
He graduated from Bethel Park High School in 2022. Former classmates described him as a “relentlessly bullied” loner who loved playing video games and hunting.
Ex-classmate Jason Kohler told KDKA that Crooks was so fond of the sport he would occasionally wear his hunting outfits to class.
Another former classmate, Sarah D’Angelo, told The Wall Street Journal Sunday morning that Crooks had “few friends” and “didn’t have a full friend group,” saying she remembered him regularly playing video games on his laptop during homeroom period at school.
Crooks did not appear in the 2022 Bethel Park High School Yearbook, though he can be seen in video accepting his diploma at his class’ graduation that year.
TribLive reported Crooks was also the recipient of a $500 National Math and Science Initiative Star Award in his graduating year.
Political affiliation
A question of significant interest immediately following the assassination attempt was whether Crooks leaned Republican or Democratic in his political views.
But the clues discovered so far paint a mixed picture. According to state voting records, Crooks was a registered Republican, though given his age he would have been too young to cast a ballot in the 2020 presidential election.
However, Crooks made a $15 donation to the liberal ActBlue political action committee on Jan. 20, 2021 — the day of President Biden’s Inauguration Day, when he was 17 years old, The Intercept reported.
When his body was found on the roof of a manufacturing plant over 130 yards away from Trump’s rally stage, he was found with an AR-style semi-automatic assault rifle and wearing a shirt for a popular gun-focused YouTube channel, Demolition Ranch, which has over 11 million subscribers.
An ex-classmate who confirmed pictures of Crooks told The Post “He didn’t seem like, really weird or anything. I would have pegged him as a Republican.”
Home life
Police in Bethel Park were keeping both press and members of the public away from Crooks’ home, a modest brick ranch house on a leafy green, middle-class suburban street.
His father, Matthew Crooks, reportedly said he is trying to figure out “what the hell is going on” as his son was identified as Trump’s attempted assassin.
He wouldn’t provide details to reporters about his son, and wanted to “wait until I talk to law enforcement,” before speaking out on the horrific shooting, the elder Crooks told CNN on Saturday night.
No information was immediately forthcoming about Crooks’ mother.
A neighbor told The Post he saw an Allegheny County bomb squad preparing to enter the home shortly after 1 a.m.
“I saw a post of his name and that he lived in Bethel Park, so I looked him up and he lives .3 miles away,” Dan Maloney, 30, said of the younger Crooks.
“I went down there and spoke to the county bomb squad at 1:06 a.m. He said he was about to go into the house.I didn’t know the guy. No one in this neighborhood really talks to each other.”
Asked about the shooting itself, Maloney said “It’s a tragedy. One person died, another is in the hospital. He went after a former president and likely the next president.”
