One year later and questions are still unanswered as to the motive behind Thomas Matthew Crooks’ assassination attempt against President Donald Trump.
Crooks was killed by a counter-sniper on July 13, 2024 at a Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
With the ability to get an AR-15-style rifle onto the roof of a building roughly 400 feet from the rally stage, Crooks killed one man, critically injured two others and shot Trump in the ear before being fatally shot.
It’s now been a full year since the assassination attempt took place and there are still mysteries surrounding the 20-year-old’s motivations for the attack.
Questions remains over how he was able to successfully get his bullet within millimeters of killing the presidential candidate and former president that day and whether he was a lone wolf actor or had ties to foreign or domestic adversaries of Trump.
A bipartisan congressional panel was assembled to investigate the failures that led to the assassination attempt and federal agencies looked into Crooks’ background.
Investigators with the FBI and other law enforcement arms also conducted intensive investigations including an analysis of online and phone activity, and interviews with more than 100 people.
Still, no official entity has released or identified a definitive reason nor a potential political or ideological motivation for Crooks’ attack.
President Donald Trump was shot in the ear at his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13, 2024
A year after the assassination attempt and there are still linger questions about the motive of 20-year-old deceased shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks
Childhood and family
Crooks was born September 20, 2003 in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania – a working class suburb just 10 miles outside Pittsburgh.
His parents, Matthew and Mary Crooks, are both licensed professional counselors, with his father working for a local behavioral health provider.
The family lived in a three-bedroom brick home, which they owned since 1998 – years before his birth.
People recall how Crooks enjoyed building computers and playing video games.
Reached by CNN after the attack, Matthew Crooks said he was still trying to figure out ‘what the hell is going on’, but said he would reserve speaking about his son ‘until I talk to law enforcement.’
Crooks was born and raised in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania – just 10 miles outside of Pittsburgh. Pictured: The home of Matthew and Mary Crooks, which is where their son Thomas was living at the time of the shooting
Crooks was considered highly intelligent in math and science in high school
Matthew Crooks, the father of Thomas, opened the door to several members of the FBI coming to search the home the day after the assassination attempt
Education
Crooks attended Bethel Park High School where he showed academic acuity and was considered highly intelligent in math and science. He was also passionate about history.
He was part of the National Technical Honor Society as a high school junior in 2021 and graduated in 2022 with honors and a $500 ‘star award’ from the National Math and Science Initiative.
Crooks earned a 1530 score on the SATs out of a potential 1600 and had perfect scores on three Advanced Placement (AP) exams.
Through a series of investigations and interviews it was found that Crooks tried to join his high school’s rifle club. He was rejected from the team because the coach considered him a ‘dangerous’ shooter after observing his skills in the preseason and noting his inappropriate and crass jokes related to firearms.
Classmates described Crooks as quiet, reserved and a ‘loner.’
Some recalled instances where he was bullied in high school for his body odor and for wearing camouflage hunting outfits or surgical masks.
But others noted seeing him with a small group of friends and say he wasn’t actively bullied.
A high school counselor described the former student as ‘respectful’ and not particularly political.
After high school, Crooks earned an associates degree in engineering science from the Community College of Allegheny County (CCAC) in May 2024.
He was accepted to both the University of Pittsburgh and Robert Morris University. It’s been reported that in March 2024, Crooks informed Pitt that he would not be attending.
Classmates described Crooks as quiet, reserved and a ‘loner,’ he graduated in 2022
At the time of the shooting, Crooks worked at Bethel Park Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Center (pictured) as a dietary aide. He requested the day off work, telling his boss he had ‘something important to do’ but would return the next day
Career
Crooks worked as a dietary aide at Bethel Park Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, which offers short term and long term care for patients following hospital stays.
The center was just a mile from his home, where he still lived with his parents until his death last summer.
His background check for work came up clean and his employers took no issues with his job performance.
One colleague described Crooks as caring and reflected on how he worked to make things easier for patients who had life-altering conditions.
Politics
Crooks registered as a Republican in September 2021 when he turned 18.
He voted in the 2022 midterm election.
It’s unclear who he voted for, but on January 20, 2021 Crooks made a $15 donation to the Progressive Turnout Project, a Democratic-aligned political action committee.
The donation was made in response to an email regarding President Joe Biden’s presidential inauguration that day.
Two years later, Crooks unsubscribed that email account from the list that sent him the message prompting the donation.
Former classmates had conflicting perspectives on his politics with one describing Crooks as ‘slightly right-leaning’ and another saying he never openly expressed strong political views at all.
One person who went to school with Crooks claims he called them ‘stupid’ for supporting Trump.
Activity months before the attack
Just days before the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, last summer, Trump scheduled a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, for July 13, 2024.
It was about an hour by car from where Crooks resided with his parents in Bethel Park.
Crooks has been searching for months for Biden and Trump events in his area.
FBI’s Pittsburgh field office special agent in charge Kevin Rojek said that starting in September 2019 and continuing into 2024, Crooks searched for explosive devices, including ‘detonating cord,’ ‘blasting cap,’ ‘how to make a bomb from fertilizer,’ and ‘how do remote detonators work.’
In the 30 days before the attack, Crooks conducted over 60 searches related to Trump or Biden.
The FBI uncovered a July 5, 2024 search engine inquiry by Crooks for ‘When is the DNC convention’ and ‘When is the RNC in 2024.’
Between the three month period before the attack last year, Crooks looked up images of past public appearances by Trump, Biden, Attorney General Merrick Garland, FBI Director Christopher Wray and Catherine, Princess of Wales.
He also researched the Oxford High School shooting and looked-up the arrest image of shooter Ethan Crumbley, who attempted to assassinate Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico.
On July 6, 2024 – now just a week from the Trump rally – Crooks input in a search engine ‘how far was Oswald from Kennedy’ in reference to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
Some reports claim that sources said Crooks left a message on the gaming platform Steam saying: ‘July 13 will be my premiere, watch as it unfolds.’
Crooks became a member of the Clairton Sportsmen’s Club at least a year before the assassination attempt and went shooting at the rifle range the day before the attack, according to several reports.
He visited the Butler County fairgrounds at least once before the attack.
Cell phone video taken the day of the assassination attempt shows a long-haired Crooks lurking around the rally site waring a gray t-shirt with the logo of Demolition Ranch, which is a popular YouTube channel known for its firearms and demolition content
The day of the assassination attempt
The day of Trump’s Butler campaign rally, Crooks requested the day off from work by telling his boss he had ‘something important to do’ but would return the next day.
He bought 50 rounds of 5.56 mm ammunition and a five-foot ladder the same day.
The 20-year-old used an AR-15-style rifle, which his father purchased legally in 2013 and transferred to his son in 2023. Investigators say Crooks claimed he was going top the shooting range with the firearm.
Hours before the shooting, Crooks’ parents called police to report their son missing. They expressed concern for his well being.
Crooks made his way onto the roof of a building about 150 yards from the rally stage.
It was outside of the security perimeter.
Crooks opened fire at the crowd beginning at 6:11 p.m. on July 13, 2024, letting out eight rounds from the rifle he borrowed from his father.
The gunfire struck and killed 50-year-old retired firefighter Corey Comperatore, who was at the rally with his wife and two daughters.
Two other male audience members, David Dutch, 57, and James Copenhaver, 74, were shot and critically injured. They were released from the hospital more than 10 days after the attack.
A Secret Service counter-sniper fatally shot Crooks just 26 seconds after he opened fire
Crooks shot into the crowd eight times, killing one man and critically injuring two other rally-goers who were in the hospital for 10 days
Republican Rep. Ronny Jackson said a bullet grazed his nephew’s neck, which was treated by the medical team on scene. And four Pittsburgh police officers incurred minor injuries from flying debris when bullets struck objects nearby.
As news broke of the attempt, someone screen shotted a video that showed a long-haired Crooks walking around the pre-rally festivities by himself.
Other videos also emerged of people pointing their cameras toward Crooks and questioning why someone was on the roof of a nearby building outside the rally. It’s hard, and sometimes impossible, to make out the scene from the cell phone videos.
Crooks was fatally shot by a Secret Service counter-sniper only 26 seconds after opening fire.
A search of Crooks’ car uncovered two explosive devices and receivers for remote detonation and a transmitter on his body.
Other bomb-making material was found at his parents’ home after the shooting.
They also uncovered a bullet-proof vest, additional magazines and a drone.
A search of Crooks’ home and vehicle turned up bomb-making materials and two explosive devices. Receivers for remote detonation and a transmitter were found on his body
Motive speculation
The FBI investigated the incident as a potential act of domestic terrorism.
In the year since the shooting, however, investigators have not identified a clear motive or political ideology that could have prompted the assassination attempt.
An analysis of Crooks’ phone and internet searches reveal he did not engage in threatening or politically charged language.
Crooks’ father told investigators that his son’s mental health was declining in the year before the shooting.
Activity was found on his phone from April 2024 searching about ‘major depressive disorder’ and ‘depressive crisis treatment,’ indicating the 20-year-old’s struggles with mental health.
Potential Iran links
The FBI and the National Security Council (NSC) have concluded that Crooks likely acted alone.
U.S. authorities found no evidence of domestic co-conspirators or foreign entity involvement, but that hasn’t stopped conspiracies from swirling about potential Iran links.
Some say the attempt was payback for the Trump-ordered U.S. drone strikes in 2020 that killed top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani.
Even former Rep. Michael Waltz, who served a stint as Trump’s National Security Advisor, claimed there was an Iranian link to Crooks’ assassination plot.
‘The shooter had three encrypted accounts overseas. At the same time we’re having an Iranian plot,’ Waltz told Fox News in the wake of July’s attack.
‘I think this is going to go much broader, much deeper… We’re going to get to the bottom of this,’ he insisted at the time.
After U.S. intelligence entities uncovered an Iranian plot to assassinate Trump just weeks before Crooks’ shooting, it only exacerbated the conspiracies of foreign involvement.
Officials stress that the Iranian plot was unrelated to Crooks ‘lone wolf’ actions.
