(Al Jazeera Media Network) The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has identified 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks as the suspect in the attempted assassination of former US President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania’s Butler County.
The suspect, a resident of Bethel Park in Pennsylvania, was shot and killed by the Secret Service seconds after he allegedly fired shots towards a stage where Trump was speaking at the rally on Saturday days before the Republican convention.
Trump said on social media that a bullet “pierced the upper part” of his right ear before agents whisked him off stage. He offered condolences to the family of the rally attendee who was killed by the suspect.
In a new statement, Trump thanked people for their messages of support. “Thank you to everyone for your thoughts and prayers yesterday, as it was God alone who prevented the unthinkable from happening.”
Al Jazeera’s Kimberly Halkett, reporting from the White House, said that “Americans are still trying to come to terms with the shocking news.”
“Some of them have never experienced anything like this – the last time was the assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan in 1981.”
Crooks lived about an hour away from where the shooting took place in Butler. He graduated in 2022 from Bethel Park High School, according to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. He received a $500 “star award” from the National Math and Science Initiative, according to the newspaper.
A 2022 graduation ceremony video cited by The New York Times shows Crooks receiving his high school diploma to some applause. Video from that ceremony posted online shows Crooks with glasses in a black graduation gown and posing with a school official.
A statement from the Bethel Park School District received by local ABC affiliate WJET-TV confirmed he studied and graduated there.
State voter records show that Crooks was a registered Republican. The upcoming November 5 election would have been the first time Crooks had been old enough to vote in a presidential race.
However, when he was 17 he made a $15 donation to ActBlue, a political action committee that raises money for left-leaning and Democratic politicians, according to a 2021 Federal Election Commission filing. The donation was earmarked for the Progressive Turnout Project, a national group that rallies Democrats to vote.
How did he shoot?
On Saturday, according to a video by California-based entertainment news site TMZ, Crooks is seen lying on his stomach on a rooftop with a rifle in hand.
“The guy has longer brown hair, and he seems to be wearing a grey shirt/khaki pants – and as you can see, he’s carefully trying [to] pinpoint a target from afar before pulling the trigger,” TMZ reported.
Trump, 78, had just started his speech when the shots rang out. He grabbed his right ear with his right hand, then brought his hand down to look at it before dropping to his knees behind the podium before Secret Service agents covered him.
He emerged about a minute later, his red “Make America Great Again” hat knocked off. He could be heard saying “wait, wait”, before pumping his fist in the air. Agents then rushed him to a black SUV.
A second video published by TMZ shows shaky footage of the same rooftop and a blurred body.
Bob Ayers, a former CIA officer and international security analyst, has told Al Jazeera from Taunton in the UK that the US Secret Service unit responsible for securing the area “didn’t do a very good job.”
“There should not have been any possibility for a person armed with a rifle to climb right up a building and shoot at the [former] president,” Ayers said.
Explosive found in suspect’s car
Crooks was carrying explosives in his vehicle, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The US-based outlet cited unnamed people briefed on the investigation as saying that explosives were found inside the car, which was parked near the Trump rally.
Police received multiple reports of suspicious packages near where the shooter was, authorities said, prompting them to dispatch bomb experts. Investigators were still working to make sure the scene was clear well into the night.
The FBI has said investigations are ongoing to determine Crooks’s motive for the attack that came months before the presidential elections.
“We’re looking at photographs right now, and we’re trying to run his DNA and get biometric confirmation,” Kevin Rojek, FBI special agent in charge, said during a press briefing.
Crooks’s father, Matthew Crooks, 53, told CNN that he was trying to figure out what happened and would wait until he spoke to law enforcement before speaking about his son.
USA Today reported that dozens of law enforcement vehicles have been stationed outside a residence listed at the address on Crooks’s voter registration record. Agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are also on the scene and a bomb squad is at the residence.
Meanwhile, the perimeter of the residence of the suspect has been guarded by yellow police caution tape and the Federal Aviation Administration has closed the airspace over Bethel Park for “special security reasons.”
