Federal investigators continue to investigate the shooter’s motive. Shots were fired during a rally for former President Donald Trump on Saturday., Grasping the ex-president’s ear One bystander was killed and two were seriously injured.
In an Oval Office speech Sunday night, President Biden said the shooter’s motive remained unclear and urged Americans to reject politically motivated violence.
“There is no place in America for this kind of violence, any kind of violence. Period. No exceptions. We cannot allow this kind of violence to become normalized,” Biden said. “The political discourse in this country has become so heated. It’s time to calm down. We all have a responsibility to do so.”
More details emerged Sunday about the shooter, identified as a 20-year-old. Thomas Matthew CrookesA Bethel Park, Pennsylvania man has died after going on a shooting spree. Primitive materials used to make bombs were found in his home and car. The man was a member of a local gun club and, according to a former classmate, had tried to join his high school rifle team but was unsuccessful.
The FBI is investigating whether Crooks was a politically motivated, home-grown, radical domestic abuser, and investigators are still reviewing his background. A Justice Department official told reporters that agents have Crooks’ cellphone and are examining it at the FBI’s lab in Quantico, Virginia.
Police sources said a passerby spotted Crooks with a rifle on a roof about 400 feet from where Trump was speaking in Butler, Pennsylvania, and called authorities. According to the Butler County Sheriff’s Office, a local police officer was picked up by another officer to look onto the roof. Crooks pointed the rifle at the officer, but the officer let go and fell.
Crooks then turned toward the rally and fired six to eight rounds from an AR-type weapon. A Secret Service sniper shot and killed Crooks moments later. Armed agents quickly escorted Trump off the stage, blood streaming from the side of his face.
“Only God prevented the unthinkable,” Trump wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social, on Sunday morning.
Earlier, Biden said he had ordered an independent investigation to assess what happened with security at the rally and had directed the Secret Service to look into security measures for this week’s rally. Republican National Convention Trump will be formally nominated as the party’s candidate in Milwaukee, where he arrived in the city on Sunday evening.
Trump and Biden spoke by phone on Saturday evening, in what a White House official described as a “good, short and respectful” call.
