The employee at a suburban Pittsburgh nursing home who apparently tried to assassinate former President Donald Trump, He was rejected from the Bethel Park High School shooting team for his poor aim, according to Frederick Mach, the current team captain, who was a few years behind Crooks at school.
Thomas Matthew Crooks was a registered Republican who rigged the vehicle he drove to a campaign event an hour from his home with explosives.
The FBI said Sunday, July 14, that it has not yet identified an underlying ideology or documents or social media posts with threats from Crooks, who graduated from high school two years ago and had no criminal recordaccording to public court records. The agency believes Crooks acted on his own.
Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, said on social media that the top of his right ear was pierced during the shooting. Two bystanders were seriously injured. The person killed was Corey Comperatore, 50, a former fire chief in the area, who the Pennsylvania governor said died a “hero” when he lunged at his family to protect them.
The boy’s father, Matthew Crooks, told CNN on Saturday night that he was trying to figure out “What the hell is going on,” but would not comment on his son until after he spoke to police.
What do we know about Thomas Matthew Crooks?
Crooks graduated from Bethel Park High School in 2022. In a video of the graduation ceremony posted online, he can be seen walking across the stage to receive his certificate. The young man has a thin build and wears glasses. The school district said it will fully cooperate with investigators.
In his senior year of high school, Crooks received awards for his performance in mathematics and science, according to a news story published in the Tribune-Review at the time.
Jason Kohler, who attended the same high school but did not share any classes with Crooks, said the young man was victim of bullying at school and no one would sit next to him at lunch. Other students made fun of him for the type of clothing he wore, including hunting attire, Kohler said.
“He was bullied almost every day,” Kohler told reporters. “He was an outcast, and you know what kids are like these days.”
Crooks worked in a nursing home in the position of nutritional assistanta job that typically involves food preparation. Marcie Grimm, administrator of Bethel Park Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation, said she was “shocked and saddened to learn of his involvement.” Grimm added that a background check on Crooks at the time of his hiring found nothing inappropriate.
Crooks’ political leanings are not immediately known. Records show he was a registered 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 President Joe Biden was sworn into office.
Butler County District Attorney Richard Goldinger told the AP Sunday that county authorities had no prior knowledge of Crooks or any prior knowledge of him. He said the investigation so far has not produced any evidence that he coordinated with anyone else in the area.
Authorities on Sunday set up a roadblock blocking traffic near Crooks’ home, which sits in a cluster of modest brick homes in the hills outside Pittsburgh, about an hour’s drive from where Trump’s campaign rally was held.
They were found explosives-making materials inside Crooks’ vehicle near Trump’s campaign rally and at his home, according to two officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. A white Allegheny County sheriff’s van bearing a bomb squad badge arrived at Crooks’ home around noon Sunday.
Crooks used an AR-style assault rifle, which authorities believe was purchased by his father. Kevin Rojek, FBI special agent in charge of the Pittsburgh area, said investigators do not yet know whether he took the weapon without his father’s permission.
A local police officer climbed onto the roof and encountered Crooks, who pointed his rifle at him. The officer quickly climbed down the stairs, and Crooks immediately He fired in the direction of TrumpThat’s when Secret Service snipers shot him dead, said officials, who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.
A video posted on social media and geolocated by the AP shows Crooks dressed in grey camouflage and carrying a black flag of the United States on his right arm as he lay motionless on the roof of a factory a short distance north of the Butler Farm Show grounds where Trump’s appearance was held.
The roof where the alleged attacker lay was less than 150 meters from where Trump stood, a distance from which a sniper with a reasonable level of marksmanship could reasonably hit a human-sized target.
