Clues sought, but Trump shooter’s motive is a mystery

PITTSBURGH, Pa. - The 20-year-old nursing-home employee from suburban Pittsburgh who tried to assassinate former President Donald Trump was a ed Republican who packed explosives in the vehicle he drove to the campaign rally an hour from his home.

Law enforcement officials were working Sunday to learn more about Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pa., to determine what motivated him to open fire on the rally from a nearby rooftop, killing one spectator, before he was shot dead by the Secret Service.

“I urge everyone — everyone, please, don’t make assumptions about his motives or his affiliations,” President Joe Biden said in remarks Sunday from the White House. “Let the FBI do their job, and their partner agencies do their job. I’ve instructed that this investigation be thorough and swift.”

The FBI said it believes Crooks, who had bomb-making materials in the car he drove to the rally, acted alone. Investigators have found no threatening comments on social media s or ideological positions that could help explain the motive of Crooks, who graduated from high school two years ago and had no past criminal cases against him.

Several rallygoers reported to local officers that Crooks was acting suspiciously and pacing near the magnetometers, according to a law enforcement official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the investigation. Officers were then told Crooks was climbing a ladder, the official said. Officers searched for him but were unable to find him before he made it to the roof, the official added.

Butler County Sheriff Michael Slupe told the AP that a local officer climbed to the roof and encountered Crooks, who saw the officer and turned toward him just before the officer dropped down to safety. Slupe said the officer couldn’t have wielded his own gun under the circumstances. The officer retreated down the ladder, and Crooks quickly took a shot toward Trump, and that’s when Secret Service snipers shot him, according to two officials who spoke to AP on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.

FBI officials said Sunday that they were combing Crooks’ background and social media activities while working to get access to his phone. The chatting app Discord, a social media platform popular with people playing online games, said Crooks appears to have had an but used it rarely and not in the last several months. There’s no evidence he used his to promote violence or discuss his political views, a Discord spokesperson said.

Law enforcement recovered an AR-style rifle at the scene, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Investigators believe the weapon was bought by Crooks’ father at least six months ago, two law enforcement officials told The Associated Press.

Federal agents were still working to understand when and how his son obtained the gun and to gather additional information about Crooks.

Authorities said multiple suspicious packages were found around Crooks’ body.

Bomb-making materials were found inside Crooks’ vehicle near the Trump rally and at his home, according to two officials who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

Crooks’ father, Matthew Crooks, told CNN he was trying to figure out “what the hell is going on.” He said he would “wait until I talk to law enforcement” before speaking about his son.

An FBI official told reporters that Crooks’ family is cooperating with investigators.

Crooks graduated from Bethel Park High School in 2022. In a video of the school’s graduation ceremony posted online, Crooks can be seen crossing the stage to receive his diploma, appearing slight of build and wearing glasses. The school district said it will cooperate fully with investigators. His senior year, Crooks was among several students given an award for math and science, according to a Tribune-Review story at the time.

Crooks tried out for the school’s rifle team but was turned away because he was a bad shooter, said Frederick Mach, a current captain of the team who was a few years behind Crooks at the school.

Jason Kohler, who said he attended the same high school but did not share any classes with Crooks, said Crooks was bullied at school and sat alone at lunch time. Other students mocked him for the clothes he wore, which included hunting outfits, Kohler said.

“He was bullied almost every day,” Kohler told reporters. “He was just a outcast, and you know how kids are nowadays.”

Crooks worked at a nursing home as a dietary aide, a job that generally involves food preparation. Marcie Grimm, the of Bethel Park Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation, said in a statement she was “shocked and saddened to learn of his involvement.” Grimm added that Crooks had a clean background check when he was hired.

A blockade was set up Sunday preventing traffic near Crooks’ house, which is in an enclave of modest brick houses in the hills outside blue-collar Pittsburgh. Police cars were stationed at an intersection near the house and officers were seen walking through the neighborhood.

One neighbor, who lives only a few homes down the road from the gunman, told CBS Pittsburgh that police evacuated her home in the middle of the night. She was told noon on Sunday was the earliest she could be allowed back into her home.

“They asked us to leave our house. They told us it was a state of emergency, no warning, just a knock on the door in the middle of the night,” Kelly Little said. “They told us we could come back in a couple of hours, likely.”

Crooks’ political leanings were not immediately clear. Records show Crooks was ed as a Republican voter in Pennsylvania, but federal campaign finance reports also show he gave $15 to a progressive political action committee on Jan. 20, 2021, the day President Joe Biden was sworn in to office.

PHOTO GALLERY:

The FBI released his identity early Sunday morning, hours after the shooting. Authorities told reporters that Crooks was not carrying identification so they used DNA and other methods to confirm his identity.

An AP analysis of more than a dozen videos and photos from the scene of the Trump rally, as well as satellite imagery of the site, shows the shooter was able to get close to the stage where the former president was speaking.

A video posted to social media and geolocated by AP shows Crooks wearing a gray t-shirt with a black American flag on the right arm lying motionless on the roof of a manufacturing plant just north of the Butler Farm Show grounds where Trump’s rally was held.

The roof where Crooks lay was less than 164 yards from where Trump was speaking, a distance from which a decent marksman could reasonably hit a human-sized target. That is a distance at which U.S. Army recruits must hit a scaled human-sized silhouette to qualify with the M-16 rifle.

Images of Crooks’ body reviewed by AP show he appears to have been wearing a T-shirt from Demolition Ranch, a popular YouTube channel that regularly posts videos of its creator firing off handguns and assault rifles at targets that include human mannequins.

Matt Carriker, the Texas-based creator of Demolition Ranch, did not respond to a phone message or email on Sunday, but posted a photo of Crooks’ bloody corpse wearing his brand’s T-shirt on social media with the comment “What the hell.”

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