Thomas Crooks’ phone yields no clues about motive for Trump assassination attempt

Investigators examining the phone of Thomas Crooks have found no clear explanation for his attempted assassination of Donald Trump.

Thomas Crooks’ phone has offered federal investigators no clear explanations about why the 20-year-old from suburban Pittsburgh tried to assassinate former President Donald Trump, law enforcement sources told The Post.

Investigators have now turned their attention to the shooter’s laptop in the hopes of uncovering clues about his motive — a question that has proven still elusive two days after the shooting that rocked the nation.

Thomas Matthew Crooks. Picture: Supplied

Investigators have been able to piece together some clues about Crooks’ movements in before the shooting at 6.11pm on Saturday in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Earlier in the day, he bought 50 rounds of ammunition from Allegheny Arms & Gun Works and a metal ladder from Home Depot, which he used to climb to the roof of a factory with a clear sightline to Trump’s podium, sources said.

Sources said the AR-style assault rifle Crooks used belonged to his father — Matthew Brian Crooks, a licensed counsellor who registered to vote as a Libertarian.

Crooks was killed after attempting to assassinate Donald Trump. Picture: X

The dad called police sometime on Saturday to report that his son was missing — along with one of the roughly 20 guns he owned and kept in their modest suburban home in Bethel Park, about 25 minutes south of Pittsburgh, according to sources.

Meanwhile, Jim Knapp, who retired from his job as the school counsellor at Bethel Park High School in 2022, said Crooks had always been “quiet as a churchmouse”, “respectful” and kept to himself, although he did have a few friends.

He rarely came across Crooks because “he wasn’t a needy type kid”, Mr Knapp said. Crooks was content to occasionally eat lunch by himself in the school cafeteria, said Mr Knapp, who would engage such students to see if they wanted company.

Trump narrowly escaped with a bullet grazing his ear. Picture: Rebecca Droke/AFP

“Kids weren’t calling him names, kids weren’t bullying him,” Mr Knapp said.

Crooks graduated from Bethel Park High School in 2022.

Mr Knapp said he never knew Crooks to be political in any way, even as other kids would sometimes wear Trump or Biden attire. He added that he couldn’t recall Crooks ever being disciplined in school.

“Anybody could snap, anybody could have issues,” he said. “Something triggered that young man and drove him to drive up to Butler yesterday and do what he did.”

Mr Knapp’s recollection was at odds with comments by some of Crooks’ former classmates, who described him as a quiet student who often came across as lonely.

Crooks was ‘quiet as a churchmouse’ at school. Picture: Supplied

“He was quiet but he was just bullied,” Jason Kohler, who said he attended the same high school as Crooks, told reporters. “He was bullied so much.”

Investigators were seen questioning Crooks’ parents on Monday, and also reaching out to neighbours on their quiet street.

One neighbour, 38-year-old Kelly Little, told The Post she didn’t have much to offer investigators — but said she learned that Crooks had an older sister named Katherine.

The FBI earlier said it was investigating the attempted assassination as a potential act of domestic terrorism and studying Crooks’ phone to discover any “ideologies” he may have had.

This article originally appeared on NY Post and was reproduced with permission