The gunman who tried to assassinate former President Donald Trump on Saturday has been identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks, a 20-year-old registered Republican who had donated to Joe Biden. Crooks, from Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, fired at least five to seven shots during an outdoor rally in Butler, near Pittsburgh, law enforcement sources reported.
One of these shots grazed Trump’s ear. Sources said that Crooks crawled onto the roof of a manufacturing plant located over 130 yards away from the stage at the Butler Farm Show grounds. He was shot dead by Secret Service. Police said, Crooks didn’t have any criminal history. This came as the first photograph of Crooks emerged.
Everything to Know About Crooks
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Law enforcement recovered an AR-style semi-automatic assault rifle from the location. He was wearing a t-shirt promoting a well-known firearms YouTube channel named Demolition Ranch.
According to state voter records, Crooks was registered as a Republican. This year’s presidential election would have been his first opportunity to vote.
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Crooks lived about an hour away from Butler, where the shooting took place. On July 14, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) closed airspace over Bethel Park citing “special security reasons.”
In addition to his voter registration, a 2021 filing with the Federal Election Commission disclosed that Crooks had contributed $15 to ActBlue, a political action committee that supports left-leaning and Democratic candidates.
The donation was designated for the Progressive Turnout Project, a national organization that encourages Democratic voter turnout. Both ActBlue and the Progressive Turnout Project did not respond to requests for comment.
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Crooks graduated from Bethel Park High School in 2022 and was received a $500 “star award” from the National Math and Science Initiative. A video from the 2022 graduation ceremony shows Crooks receiving his diploma, wearing glasses and a black graduation gown, and posing for photos with a school official.
Authorities Raid Crooks’ Home
Police had blocked off the streets surrounding Crooks’ house. The U.S. Secret Service is investigating how a gunman with an AR-style rifle was able to get so close and injure former President Donald Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania.
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The shooter, who was killed by a Secret Service sniper, fired several shots from an “elevated position outside of the rally venue,” according to the agency.
An analysis by the Associated Press of more than a dozen videos and photos from the rally, as well as satellite imagery, reveals that the gunman got alarmingly close to the stage where Trump was speaking.
A video posted on social media and verified by the AP shows a man in gray camouflage lying motionless on the roof of a manufacturing plant just north of the Butler Farm Show grounds, the rally site.
The roof was less than 150 meters (yards) from Trump’s location, a distance from which a skilled marksman could reasonably hit a human-sized target. For context, U.S. Army recruits must hit a scaled human-sized silhouette at this distance to qualify with the M16 assault rifle in basic training. The AR-15, used by the shooter, is the semi-automatic civilian version of the military M16.
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According to two law enforcement officials who spoke on condition of anonymity, members of the Secret Service’s counter-sniper team and counter-assault team were present at the rally.
The counter-assault team, code-named “Hawkeye,” is responsible for eliminating threats to allow other agents to protect the protected individual. The counter-sniper team, known as “Hercules,” uses long-range binoculars and sniper rifles to address distant threats.
U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas said that his department, along with the Secret Service, is collaborating with law enforcement to investigate the shooting.
