The Trump Shooter: A Star Student Who was Bullied at School

By Staff, Agencies

The FBI has identified former US President Donald Trump’s would-be assassin as a 20-year-old man named Thomas Matthew Crooks. Much about Crooks, including his political leanings and motive, remains unclear.

Trump narrowly avoided death at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, when an assassin’s bullet apparently clipped his ear as it whizzed past his head. Firing from a rooftop around 500 feet [150 meters] from the stage, the gunman killed one spectator at the rally and wounded two others before he was shot dead by Secret Service snipers stationed on a different rooftop.

In a statement released on Saturday night, the FBI said that it had “identified Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, as the subject involved in the assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump.” As the agency appealed for anyone with information to submit photos and videos of the incident, details of Crooks’ life began to emerge in the press.

Crooks lived with his parents in Bethel Park, located around an hour from Butler. He graduated from Bethel Park High School in 2022, winning a $500 “star award” from the National Math and Science Initiative, according to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

In a high school yearbook photo posted online, Crooks can be seen wearing a shirt emblazoned with an American flag, while video footage shows him receiving his high-school diploma in 2022 to scattered applause.

A classmate of Crooks, 21-year-old Jason Kohler, told NBC News that Crooks was a “loner” who was “bullied so much in high school.” However, another classmate, 20-year-old Michael Dudjak said that Crooks was not actively bullied, but was “on his own a lot.”

Crooks was a registered Republican, according to Pennsylvania voter records cited by multiple US media outlets. However, he made a $15 donation to ActBlue, a liberal fundraising organization, on the day of President Joe Biden’s inauguration in 2021, according to federal Federal Election Commission records cited by the same outlets.

Classmates of Crooks told NBC News that they couldn’t recall Crooks being active on social media or outspoken about politics.

“We do not currently have an identified motive,” FBI Special Agent Kevin Rojek told reporters on Saturday night, adding that the agency was working “tirelessly” to determine why the 20-year-old attempted to kill Trump.

Crooks used an AR-15-style rifle to carry out the attack, law enforcement sources told multiple US media outlets. According to ABC News, the semiautomatic rifle was purchased legally by Crooks’ father only six months before the shooting.

Jason Kohler, one of the classmates who spoke to NBC News, said that Crooks was made fun of for wearing hunting outfits to school. At the time of the shooting, Crooks was wearing a t-shirt bearing the logo of ‘Demolition Ranch’, a popular YouTube channel featuring demonstrations of powerful firearms and explosives.

Shortly after the shooting, ‘Demolition Ranch’ host Matt Carriker shared a photo of a Secret Service agent standing over Crooks’ body on Instagram with the caption “what the hell.”

Law enforcement sources told the Associated Press that bomb-making materials were found in Crooks’ home, and in a car, he’d abandoned near the site of the shooting.

Crooks’ neighbors told the New York Times that the family lived on an “upper middle class” street, describing his father as a “libertarian” and his mother as a registered Democrat. Contacted by CNN on Saturday, the shooter’s father said that he was still trying to figure out “what the hell is going on” and would “wait until I talk to law enforcement” before speaking to the press.