The motive of the gunman who tried to assassinate Trump remains unknown

WASHINGTON (AP) — The 20-year-old man who tried to assassinate former President Donald Trump caught the attention of authorities during Saturday’s rally when onlookers noticed him acting strangely outside the campaign event. The tip sparked a frantic search, but officers were unable to find him before he managed to climb onto a roof, where he opened fire.

Following the shooting that killed a bystander, investigators were searching for clues about what may have driven Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, to carry out the shocking attack.

The FBI said it was investigating it as a possible act of domestic terrorism, but the lack of a clear ideological motive on the part of the man shot dead by the Secret Service has led to conspiracy theories flourishing.

“I urge everyone, everyone, please, not to make assumptions about his motives or his affiliations,” President Joe Biden said in remarks Sunday from the White House. “Let the FBI do its job and let its partner agencies do theirs. I have directed that this investigation be thorough and swift.”

The FBI believes Crooks, who had bomb-making materials in the car he drove to the rally, acted alone. Investigators have found no threatening comments on social media or ideological positions that could help explain what led him to attack Trump before the Secret Service carried the likely Republican presidential nominee off the stage, his face smeared with blood.

Trump said on social media that the top of his right ear was pierced in the shooting, but aides said he was in “very high spirits” ahead of his arrival Sunday in Milwaukee for the Republican National Convention. Two spectators were seriously injured, while a former area fire chief, Corey Comperatore, was killed. Pennsylvania’s governor said Comperatore, 50, died a hero as he threw himself over his family to protect them.

Crooks’ relatives did not respond to multiple messages from The Associated Press. His father, Matthew Crooks, told CNN late Saturday that he was trying to figure out “what the hell is going on” but would not discuss his son until after speaking with authorities. An FBI official told reporters that Crooks’ family is cooperating with investigators.

Several protest attendees reported to local officers that Crooks was acting suspiciously and walking near the magnetometers, according to a law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the investigation. Officers were then told that Crooks was climbing a ladder, the official said. Officers searched for him but were unable to find him before he reached the roof, the official said.

Butler County Sheriff Michael Slupe told the AP that a local deputy went up to the roof and encountered Crooks, who saw the deputy and turned toward him just before the deputy dove to the ground for safety. Slupe said the deputy could not have drawn his own gun under the circumstances. The deputy retreated down the ladder and Crooks quickly fired toward Trump, and that’s when Secret Service snipers shot him, according to two officials who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.

FBI officials said Sunday they were reviewing Crooks’ background and social media activity as they worked to gain access to his phone. The chat app Discord, a social media platform popular with people who play online games, said Crooks appears to have had an account but used it rarely and not in recent months. There is no evidence he used his account to promote violence or discuss his political views, a Discord spokesperson said.

Crooks’ political leanings were not immediately clear. Records show Crooks was registered as a 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 Biden took office.

Crooks graduated from Bethel Park High School in 2022. In a video of the school’s graduation ceremony posted online, Crooks can be seen walking across the stage to receive his diploma, slim-built and wearing glasses. The school district said it will fully cooperate with investigators. As a senior, Crooks was among several students who received an award for math and science, according to a Tribune-Review article at the time.

Crooks tried out for the school’s shooting team but was rejected because he was a poor shot, said Frederick Mach, a current team captain who was a few years behind Crooks in school.

Jason Kohler, who said he attended the same high school but did not share classes with Crooks, said Crooks was bullied and sat alone at lunch. Other students made fun of him for the clothes he wore, which included hunting suits, 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 at a nursing home as a nutritional assistant, a job that typically involves preparing food. Marcie Grimm, the administrator at Bethel Park Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation, said in a statement that she was “shocked and saddened to learn of his involvement.” Grimm added that Crooks had no criminal record when he was hired.

A roadblock had been set up Sunday to prevent traffic near Crooks’ home, which is in an enclave of modest brick homes in the hills outside Pittsburgh and about an hour’s drive from the site of Trump’s rally. Police cars were parked at an intersection near the home and officers were seen walking through the neighborhood.

The robbers used an AR-style rifle, which authorities believe was purchased by his father. Kevin Rojek, FBI special agent in charge in Pittsburgh, said investigators do not yet know whether he took the weapon without his father’s permission.

A video posted on social media and geolocated by AP shows Crooks wearing a gray T-shirt with a black American flag on his right arm, lying motionless on the roof of a manufacturing plant just north of the Butler Farm Show grounds where Trump’s rally was held.

The roof where Crooks lay was less than 150 metres from where Trump was speaking, a distance from which a decent marksman could reasonably hit a human-sized target. That’s a distance at which US Army recruits must hit a human-sized silhouette in order to use the M-16 rifle.

Images of Crooks’ body reviewed by AP show he appears to have been wearing a T-shirt from Demolition Ranch, a popular YouTube channel that regularly posts videos of its creator firing pistols and assault rifles at targets that include human mannequins.

Matt Carriker, the Texas-based creator of Demolition Ranch, did not respond to a phone message or email on Sunday, but posted a photo of Crooks’ bloodied corpse wearing his brand’s T-shirt on social media with the comment, “What the heck.”