Photos of Thomas Matthew Crooks, the 20-year-old gunman who attempted to assassinate former President Donald Trump during a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday, are being circulated on social media.
Crooks was shot immediately after he began shooting. The Secret Service snipers neutralized Crooks as soon as they caught him. He was found with an AR-style semi-automatic assault rifle and was wearing a shirt promoting the popular gun YouTube channel Demolition Ranch, which has over 11 million subscribers.
An X user shared a video in which, Crooks is seen speaking against Donald Trump and saying, “I hate Trump”. However, in the end, he says, “you got the wrong guy”. This has sparked divided opinions about the person in the video. Some people believe it’s the shooter Crooks while some are calling it fake and that person is the assassin’s lookalike.
A photo shows Crooks, blood all over, positioned on the roof of a manufacturing plant over 130 yards away from the rally at Butler Farm Show grounds when he fired at Trump, grazing the former president’s ear and killing one attendee.
A former classmate, who confirmed the photos of Crooks, said, “He didn’t seem like really weird or anything. I would have pegged him as a Republican.” The classmate added that Crooks was more of a loner, with few friends, and speculated that he may not have returned to school after the COVID-19 pandemic, as he wasn’t in the 2022 yearbook.
Thomas Mathew Crooks grew up in Bethel Park, a suburb of Pittsburgh located about 40 miles south of the rally site in Butler. According to state voter records, he was a registered Republican. Notably, Crooks made a single $15 donation to the liberal ActBlue political action committee on January 20, 2021—President Biden’s Inauguration Day.
He registered to vote as a Republican upon turning 18 in September 2021. The school district confirmed on Sunday morning that he was a member of the 2022 graduating class at Bethel Park High School.
Early Sunday, the FBI confirmed Crooks as the “subject involved” in the attack on Trump. Police blocked off the streets around Crooks’ house, and a neighbor reported seeing an Allegheny County bomb squad car preparing to enter the home just after 1 am.
“I saw a post of his name and that he lived in Bethel Park, so I looked him up and he lives 0.3 miles away,” said neighbor Dan Maloney, 30. “I went down there and spoke to the county bomb squad at 1:06 am. He said he was about to go into the house. I didn’t know the guy. No one in this neighborhood really talks to each other.”
