WASHINGTON (AP) — A 20-year-old man Attempted to assassinate Former President Donald Trump first came to police’s attention when a crowd at a rally on Saturday noticed him behaving strangely outside a campaign venue, sparking a frantic search, but officers were unable to find him until he managed to climb onto a roof, where they opened fire.
In the wake of shooting Following the incident, which left one spectator dead, investigators are searching for clues about what motivated suspect Thomas Matthew Crooks, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, to carry out the shocking attack. The FBI is investigating the incident. Possible domestic terrorist actHowever, the man who was shot had no clear ideological motive. secret Service Conspiracy theories spread.
“I ask people to please not speculate about his motives or his affiliations,” President Joe Biden said. He made the remarks Sunday from the White House.“Please allow the FBI and its partners to do their job. I have directed that this investigation be conducted thoroughly and expeditiously.”
The FBI said they believe Crooks, who drove to the rally with bomb-making materials in the car he was in, acted alone. Investigators have not found any threatening comments on his social media accounts or any ideological stance that would explain why he targeted Trump. Secret Service rushes to the scene A leading contender for the Republican presidential nomination was escorted off the stage with blood on his face.
Trump said on social media that the shooting left him with a piercing in the top of his right ear, but advisers said he was in “very good spirits” before arriving Sunday in Milwaukee for the Republican National Convention. Two spectators were seriously injured and former area fire chief Corey Comperatore was killed. Pennsylvania’s governor The 50-year-old Comperatore died a hero He jumps in to protect his family.
Crooks’ relatives did not respond to multiple messages from The Associated Press. His father, Matthew Crooks, said: He spoke to CNN late Saturday. Crooks said he was trying to figure out “what the hell is going on” but wouldn’t talk about his son until he’d spoken to police. An FBI official told reporters that Crooks’ family was cooperating with the investigation.
Several protesters alerted local police that Crooks was acting suspiciously and wandering around near the magnetometer, according to a police officer who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the investigation. Officers were then notified that Crooks had climbed a ladder. Officers searched for Crooks before he reached the roof but were unable to find him, the officer added.
Butler County Sheriff Michael Throop told The Associated Press that local officers climbed onto the roof and encountered Crooks, who saw the officers, ducked, then turned toward them just before the officers ducked and climbed down to safety. Throop said the circumstances did not allow the officers to grab their own guns. The officers climbed down the ladder, and Crooks quickly fired at Trump, at which point a Secret Service sniper shot him, two officials told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing investigation.
FBI officials said Sunday they were reviewing Crooks’ background and social media activity while trying to access his phone. Discord, a chat app and social media platform popular with online gamers, said Crooks appeared to have an account but rarely used it and had not used it in recent months. A Discord spokesman said there was no evidence he used the account to incite violence or discuss political views.
Crooks’ political leanings were not immediately clear. Records show he was registered as a Republican voter in Pennsylvania, but federal campaign finance reports also show he donated $15 to a progressive political action committee on Jan. 20, 2021, the day Biden was sworn into office.
Crooks graduated from Bethel Park High School in 2022. In a video of the school’s graduation ceremony posted online, a skinny, bespectacled Crooks can be seen walking across the stage to receive his diploma. The school district said it would cooperate fully with the investigation. Crooks was one of several students awarded math and science awards during his senior year of high school. Tribune Review This is a story from back then.
Crooks tried out for the school’s rifle team but was turned down because he was a poor shooter, said Frederick Mack, the team’s current captain, who was a few years younger than Crooks at the school.
Jason Kohler said he attended the same high school as Crooks but they were not in the same classes, and that Crooks was bullied at school and would sit alone at lunch. Other students would make fun of the clothes he wore, including hunting gear, Kohler said.
“He was bullied almost daily,” Kohler told reporters. “He was a total outcast. You know what kids are like these days.”
Crooks worked as a dietitian at the nursing home, a job that primarily involves preparing food. “We were shocked and saddened to learn of Ms. Crooks’ involvement,” Marcy Grimm, administrator at Bethel Park Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation, said in a statement. Grimm added that Crooks had passed a background check when she was hired.
Traffic was blocked off Sunday near Crooks’ home, a neighborhood of modest brick homes in the hills outside Pittsburgh, about an hour’s drive from the Trump rally. Police vehicles were stationed at intersections near his home and officers were seen walking through the neighborhood.
Crooks was using an AR-style rifle that authorities believe was purchased by his father, FBI Special Agent in Charge Pittsburgh Kevin Rojek said investigators don’t yet know if Crooks took the gun without his father’s permission.
Video footage located by The Associated Press and posted to social media showed Crooks, wearing a gray T-shirt with a black American flag on his right arm, lying motionless on the roof of a manufacturing plant just north of the Butler Farm Show, where Trump has been holding a rally.
The roof where Crooks was lying was less than 150 meters (164 yards) from where Trump was speaking, close enough for a skilled marksman to successfully hit a human-sized target — the distance at which U.S. Army recruits must shoot a human-sized silhouette to be qualified with an M-16 rifle.
A photo of Crooks’ body reviewed by The Associated Press showed he was wearing a Demolition Ranch T-shirt. Popular YouTube Channels The site regularly posts videos in which creators fire handguns and assault rifles at targets, including human mannequins.
Matt Carriker, founder of Texas-based Demolition Ranch, did not respond to phone and email messages Sunday but posted a photo on social media of Crooks’ bloody body wearing a T-shirt from his company’s brand with the comment, “What the hell?”
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Mustian reported from New York and Balsamo reported from Chicago. Mark Levy in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Julie Smith, Lindsay Barr and Joshua Bickel in Bethel Park, Michael R. Sisak and Randy Hershaft in New York, Michael Kunzelman in Silver Spring, Maryland, Colleen Long and Eric Tucker in Washington contributed to this report.
