Thomas Matthew Crooks: Everything we know about the man who shot at Donald Trump
Registered Republican Thomas Matthew Crooks bear-crawled onto a one-storey building and within minutes opened fire. His father is still trying to figure out ‘what the hell is going on’.
Registered Republican Thomas Matthew Crooks has been identified as the gunman who attempted to assassinate former US president Donald Trump during a rally in Pennsylvania, shortly before being shot in the head by the US Secret Service.
The 20-year-old from Bethel Park, Pennsylvania was named by the Federal Bureau of Investigations as the “subject involved” in the shooting that took place in Butler on Saturday night, local time.
Crooks was immediately shot in the head by the US Secret Service after the attack occurred.
Wearing neutral-coloured clothing, Crooks, according to witnesses, bear-crawled onto a one-storey building about 130m from the stage where Trump was due to address the crowd. He lay flat on his stomach and started shooting within minutes of the event starting.
Greg, a Trump supporter who was standing outside the rally, told the BBC he saw Crooks crawl onto the roof holding a rifle.
“We could clearly see him with a rifle,” Greg said.
“Next thing I know I’m thinking ‘Why is Trump still speaking? Why haven’t they pulled him off the stage?’ … Next thing I know, five shots rang out.”
Greg said he and his friends attempted to alert authorities of the shooter’s presence, but to no avail. “Hey man, there’s a guy on the roof with a rifle,” he said he told officers.
Crooks was on the roof “for at least three to four minutes” before he started shooting at the former president, Greg said. Then, the US Secret Service “blew his head off” before crawling onto the roof themselves to ensure he was dead.
US Secret Service personnel said the gunman had been “neutralised”.
“During former President Trump’s campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on the evening of July 13 at approximately 6.15pm, a suspected shooter fired multiple shots toward the stage from an elevated position outside of the rally venue,” a statement read, attributed to the agency’s chief of communications Anthony Guglielmi.
“US Secret Service quickly responded with protective measures and former President Trump is safe. One spectator was killed, and two spectators were critically injured.”
Bethel Park is located in the southern area of greater Pittsburgh. The rally was held in Butler, about an hour’s drive north.
Voter records from Pennsylvania listed Crooks as a registered Republican, but it is unclear when those records were put in place. The public records show he made a $15 donation to a Democratic-aligned group in 2021, when he was 17-years-old.
The upcoming presidential election would have been the first he was old enough to vote in.
Crooks’ father, Matthew Crooks, told CNN on Saturday night he was trying to figure out “what the hell is going on” but would “wait until I talk to law enforcement” before speaking about his son.
It is unclear why Crooks shot at the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, with special agent in charge of the FBI’s Pittsburgh field office Kevin Rojek saying authorities had not yet identified a motive.
“We do not currently have an identified motive, although our investigators are working tirelessly to attempt to identify what that motive was,” he said.
Crooks didn’t have any identification on his body, so agents had to “run his DNA and get biometric confirmation”, Rojek said.
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