Thomas Matthew Crooks

Thomas Matthew Crooks (September 20, 2003 – July 13, 2024) was an American man who attempted to assassinate then-former U.S. president Donald Trump, who at the time was the presumptive Republican Party nominee for the 2024 presidential election.

On July 13, 2024, at a rally near Butler, Pennsylvania, Crooks shot at Trump with an AR-15–style rifle from a nearby rooftop while Trump was giving a speech. Crooks wounded Trump's ear and killed one attendee while critically injuring two others before being killed by a Secret Service counter sniper team. His motive remains unknown; the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is investigating the case. Trump won the 2024 election less than four months later.

Early life and education

Thomas Matthew Crooks was born on September 20, 2003, and he grew up in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, south of Pittsburgh. Both of Crooks's parents are licensed professional counselors. Recollections about him, including information about his life and personality, vary considerably.

He attended Bethel Park High School. He attempted to join the school's rifle club, participating in "preseason", but was such a bad shooter, he was considered "dangerous", being rejected from the team and asked not to come back. He joined the National Technical Honor Society in 2021 while a junior in high school. In 2022, he graduated with high honors and won a $500 "star award" from the National Math and Science Initiative. Crooks earned a score of 1530 out of 1600 on the SAT, as well as perfect grades on three Advanced Placement exams.

Classmates and school officials characterized him as being quiet; classmates said that he was often bullied for various reasons, including his quiet demeanor, body odor, as well as for wearing camouflage hunting outfits and surgical masks to school.

He earned an associate degree in engineering science from the Community College of Allegheny County in Pittsburgh, graduating two months before the shooting. He was employed as a dietary aide in a nursing home at the time of the shooting. According to the nursing home, which is less than a mile away from where he lived, he had passed a background check and "performed his job without concern". He had been accepted into both the University of Pittsburgh and Robert Morris University in Moon Township, Pennsylvania, northwest of Pittsburgh and planned to attend the latter. He had a membership at a local shooting club for at least a year.

Crooks' father noticed his mental health declining in the year before the shooting, and particularly in the months after graduation. He later told investigators that he had seen his son talking to himself and dancing around his bedroom late at night, and that his family had a history of mental health and addiction issues. Crooks was also making depression-related queries online, investigators found. Interviews with his teachers, friends and co-workers suggest that many people who interacted with him regularly did not know he was troubled.

Donald Trump assassination attempt

Prior to the shooting, Crooks searched for images and public appearances of Trump, President Joe Biden, Attorney General Merrick Garland, FBI Director Christopher A. Wray, and Catherine, Princess of Wales, as well as for information regarding the Republican National Convention and the Democratic National Convention. He also searched the Internet for information on major depressive disorder and the Oxford High School shooting, with authorities finding an arrest photograph of Oxford shooter Ethan Crumbley on his phone.

On December6, 2023, almost seven months before the shooting, Crooks rapidly cycled through several news websites, including CNN, The New York Times and Fox News, before visiting the Trump administration’s archives. Then, he visited seven gun websites, including one focused on the AR-15, similar to the rifle he would use in the attack. Later that day, he paid a visit to his local shooting range.

In January 2024, Crooks placed a $101.91 order online for more than two gallons of nitromethane, a fuel additive that can be used in explosives, giving his home address for delivery. The package did not arrive promptly. On January31 at 7:44a.m. EST, Crooks sent an email to the company asking what happened to the package.

On July6, 2024, the same day he registered for the rally, Crooks searched "how far was Oswald from Kennedy" in reference to former president John F. Kennedy and the gunman who assassinated him. Crooks also searched for information on power plants and the attempted assassination of Slovakian prime minister Robert Fico. He used a number of aliases and encrypted communication accounts to buy firearm supplies and bomb-making material. On July12, 2024, Crooks went to a shooting range where he was a member to practice firing.

Before going to the rally on July13, Crooks purchased 50rounds of ammunition and a ladder. He requested the day off from work because he had "something important to do", telling his co-workers that he would return the next day. Hours before the shooting, Crooks's parents had called the police to report him as missing and expressed concern about his wellbeing. On July13, Crooks went to the Trump rally. He climbed onto a building that was being used by police as a staging area. Text messages from a police sniper indicate that the police were already aware of him 90 minutes before the shooting. Using an AR-15–style rifle which his father had bought legally in 2013 and that was legally transferred to him in 2023, Crooks shot Trump and injured his upper right ear and also shot three adult male audience members; one of them, 50-year-old Corey Comperatore, was killed. Crooks was then killed by a member of the Secret Service Counter Sniper Team; the cause of death was a single gunshot wound to the head. Bomb-making materials were found inside his vehicle and at his home, and a remote detonator was found on his body. The FBI identified him as the shooter on July14.

As word spread the next day that he was the gunman, a friend from community college reached out. He texted; "Hey Thomas, you weren't the person who tried to shoot Trump and then got killed right?" The friend was interviewed by the ''New York Times'' but requested anonymity out of fear of being associated with Crooks.

, an investigation by the FBI was described to have at that time been underway. Crooks's motives remain unknown.

Political activities

Authorities have said that Crooks' political views are unknown, and they have not determined whether his assassination attempt was politically motivated. Public records do not indicate his views.

On January20, 2021, when he was 17, he donated $15 to the Progressive Turnout Project, a liberal voter turnout group, through the Democratic Party donation platform ActBlue. His donation was made on the same day that President Biden was sworn into office. According to the Progressive Turnout Project, he made the donation in response to an email about "tuning into" the inauguration. He unsubscribed from the group's mailing list in 2022.

Crooks had been registered to vote since September 2021, when he turned 18. He registered as a Republican, and he voted only once (in the 2022 midterm elections).

In 2022, Crooks wrote about George Orwell's essay "Shooting an Elephant", calling it "a powerful allegory warning against adopting imperialistic policies."

In April 2023, Crooks showed his frustration with American politics in a school essay about ranked-choice voting, where he claimed "divisive and incendiary campaigns are pulling the country apart." In another essay, Crooks criticized how NASA handled the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster from back in 1986. He blamed NASA's administrators for the incident, claiming they were "trying to live up to the lofty promises they made to Congress which they were never going to be able to fulfill."

After the shooting, the FBI uncovered a social media account "believed to be associated with the shooter" with about 700 comments from 2019 to 2020. A public statement from FBI deputy director Paul Abbate described Crooks's activity on social networking services as including comments that "appear to reflect antisemitic and anti-immigration themes" and "espouse political violence". Abbate noted that the findings were preliminary and that the comments were still in the process of being authenticated.

See also

* Ryan Wesley Routh
* List of United States presidential assassination attempts and plots

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Crooks, Thomas Matthew
2003 births
2024 deaths
21st-century American murderers
American criminal snipers
American failed assassins
American male criminals
American people of Scottish descent
Attempted assassination of Donald Trump in Pennsylvania
Criminals from Pennsylvania
Failed assassins of presidents of the United States
People associated with the 2024 United States presidential election
People from Bethel Park, Pennsylvania
People shot dead by law enforcement officers in Pennsylvania