The portrait pieced together so far of the 20-year-old nursing home aide who allegedly tried to assassinate Donald Trump at an election rally reveals frustratingly little about why he would make such an attempt – or how he managed to come so close to killing the former president.
The early details that have emerged about Thomas Matthew Crooks, who was shot dead by law enforcement, show a young man working an entry-level job near his hometown in Pennsylvania, where he graduated from high school in 2022 with a reputation as a bright but quiet classmate. His high school counselor described him as “respectful” and said he never knew Crooks to be political.
The FBI said on Sunday that Crooks’ social media profile does not contain threatening language, nor have they found any history of mental health issues. They said he acted alone and have not identified a motive.
What is unique about Thomas Crooks – when compared to other recent shooters who opened fire at schools, churches, malls and parades – is that he came within inches of killing a presidential candidate.
On Saturday afternoon, Thomas Crooks slipped onto a rooftop location 150 yards (140 meters) from the stage where Trump was speaking in Butler, Pennsylvania. He then began firing an AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle, purchased by his father, officials said.
The gunfire killed a 50-year-old man, critically wounded two other spectators, and struck Trump’s ear – an assassination attempt that has further inflamed an already bitter U.S. political divide. The FBI said it was probing the shooting as “an assassination attempt and potential domestic terrorism.”
A resident of Bethel Park, about an hour away from where the shooting occurred, Crooks was a registered Republican who would have been eligible to cast his first presidential vote in the Nov. 5 election in which Trump is challenging President Joe Biden. Public records show his father is a registered Republican and his mother a registered Democrat, and that as a 17-year-old Crooks made a $15 donation to a Democratic Party cause.
The suspect was a member of a local shooting club named Clairton Sportsmen’s Club, the club confirmed to the media on Sunday while condemning the shooting and calling it a “senseless act of violence.”
Crooks was employed as a dietary aide at a nursing home at the time of the shooting, the home’s administrator said in a statement.
“We are shocked and saddened to learn of his involvement as Thomas Matthew Crooks performed his job without concern and his background check was clean,” said Marcie Grimm, administrator of the Bethel Park Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Center.
NEVER KNOWN TO BE POLITICAL
Two years ago, Thomas Crooks graduated from the local high school, where he showed no particular interest in politics, according to one classmate who asked not to be identified. Crooks’ interests centered on building computers and playing games, the classmate said in an interview.
“He was super smart. That’s what really kind of threw me off was, this was, like, a really, really smart kid, like he excelled,” the classmate said. “Nothing crazy ever came up in any conversation.”
