Lonely Life of Thomas Matthew Crooks, Trump Shooter
 Bloody History of Assassination Attempts to Kill Presidents and Presidential Candidates in the US Here is a complete list of people who tried to kill presidents and presidential candidates. Killers have taken the lives of four presidents: Abraham Lincoln, ... |
This short video from 2022, shared on Facebook by Crooks' school, shows him taking a computer coding class and explaining the idea of coding to another student.
BlackRock, which is the biggest money manager in the world, said that Crooks was in one of its ads in 2022 for a short time. BlackRock gave the police video of the ad with Crooks in it and then took it down. Putting up ads off the internet. The company was thankful that former President Trump was not seriously hurt and felt sorry for the attack victims, especially the person who died.
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| Lonely Life of Thomas Matthew Crooks: A screengrab of Thomas Crooks from the BlackRock ad that aired in 2022. |
Classmates said that Crooks was a quiet, alone student in high school who was sometimes picked on and never spoke out about politics. He sometimes wore camouflage or hunter clothes, didn't have many friends, and had trouble making friends at school.
Someone who graduated a year after Crooks said, "If someone said something mean in front of him, he would just stare at them."
Sarah D' Angelo, a classmate, said that all she could think of Crooks was as a young man who was lonely and didn't have many friends.
Kendall Spragg, who went to Bethel Park High School with Crooks but was a year behind him, said that Crooks sometimes ate lunch by himself. "He didn't really get along with the people around him," she noted.
Crooks, who is 20 years old, brought an AR-15-style rifle and climbed on top of the building to shoot at former President Donald Trump when he came to Butler County, Pennsylvania, to campaign. They couldn't believe it. Trump was elected on July 13.
The moment Crooks opened fire and shot Trump:
Crooks' bullets missed Mr. Trump, but they hit a spectator and killed one and hurt two. The former president was only hurt in the ear, and the FBI (US Federal Bureau of Investigation) said it was a failed attempt to kill him.
After news about Crooks spread, people who lived nearby said they didn't like him at all. High school students in the area looked all over social media for any sign of Crooks, but they couldn't find much.
While Crooks was being killed, no photo identification was found on his body, which made it much harder for police to identify him.
To find Crooks's father, Matthew Crooks, they had to use the serial number on the AR-15-style rifle he used. This gun was bought legally by Mr. Matthew, and the FBI is checking to see if he stole his father's gun.
Sources close to the investigation say Matthew thought his son had brought the gun to the range that day to practice. When he couldn't reach him, he got worried and called the police later. when he learned about the killing.
The FBI said that authorities found bomb-making materials at Crooks' family home and an explosive device in his parked car near the scene of the crime.
"Lone wolf" behavior was exhibited by Crooks, according to Kevin Rojek, FBI special agent in charge of the Pittsburgh field office. Investigators are currently attempting to ascertain his motivation for the shooting.
Officials said that one of the problems was that they hadn't found any writings or manifestos by the attacker that showed what he believed or how he felt about politics.
The process of getting access to Crooks' cell phone is being pushed by FBI agents very quickly. But the little information they got from his recent messages didn't help them figure out why he was doing it or if Crooks was working with anyone else.
The suspect wasn't on the FBI's list of possible threats before the shooting, and there were no signs that he had mental health issues.
"We are continuing to review all of his social media accounts and look for any threatening statements, but as of now, we have found nothing," said Rojek.
Crooks doesn't put up much of an effort on social networks or in politics. He seems to have an account on Discord, a social network that video game fans like, but he doesn't go there very often.
A spokesperson for Discord said that Crooks hadn't used the account to post on the social network in months, and that Crooks' account was deleted because it broke the rules.
In her job at Bethel Park Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, Crooks helped with food preparation. Building manager Marcie Grimm said they were shocked to learn that Crooks was involved in the failed attempt to kill former President Trump. People who work at the center say that Crooks "always does a good job and has a clean record."
Federal Election Commission records show that Crooks gave $15 to the Progressive Voters Project in Chicago on the day that President Joe Biden was sworn in as president in 2021. This is a Democratic Party-affiliated political action committee that gets people to vote. His voting records in Pennsylvania, on the other hand, show that he is a Republican.
"He has never spoken publicly about his political views or how much he hates Mr. Trump," he said.
A news site in Western Pennsylvania called TribLIVE says that Crooks won the $500 National Science & Mathematics Innovation Star award during his senior year.
At Bethel Park High School, two other classmates said they didn't see any clear warning signs from Crooks.
Zach Bradford, a classmate, said that Crooks had studied American history and government. He thought Crooks was "extremely intelligent" and had "slightly right-leaning" views, which impressed him.
Even though Bradford knew that Crooks had been picked on by other students, he was still shocked when he learned that Crooks had shot former President Trump.
"To be honest, I never thought about this," he stated.
Crooks grew up in the Bethel Park neighborhood, which is "fairly solidly middle class, which could be classified as upper middle class," according to Dan Grzybek, who is on the county council and represents the area.
Grzybek got to know the suspect's parents a year ago. Even though he couldn't remember everything that was said, he thought they were friendly and happy.
Crooks is a registered Republican, but his mother is a Democrat and his father is a Libertarian. This is a pretty typical mix of political views in the area.
About a kilometer away, Grzybek lives with the Crooks family. He said that everyone in the neighborhood was shocked. "Most people can't believe it happened in our area," he stated.
Fellow neighbor Dean Sierka, 52, has known Crooks and his family for a long time. The two families lived close to each other, and Crooks' daughter had gone to the same school for many years as Sierka's daughter.
It seems like Sierka remembers Crooks as shy and quiet. At least once a week, she saw him when Crooks walked from his house to the nursing home.
She said, "I can't believe what happened." "His family and parents are all nice." "That's crazy."
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