What The Gunman Did Before His Assassination Attempt On Trump
Federal investigators continue to search for the motive behind suspect Thomas Matthew Crooks' attempted assassination of former U.S. President Donald Trump at an election rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13, 2024. What they have pieced together is his movements before the attack. According to CNN, the 20-year-old shooter from Bethel Park, Pennsylvania spent time at a gun range and bought a ladder and ammunition before heading to just outside the rally where he would make his attempt on Trump. Before Crooks died in a hail of Secret Service gunfire, he shot the former president in the right ear, killed one of the rally attendees, and critically wounded two others.
Crooks appears to have spent the 48 hours before the attack making final preparations for his attempt on Trump's life. As the investigation continues, more details may emerge about the suspect's planning, including when and how he made the explosive device found inside the car he drove to the rally. For now, questions remain regarding not just when he came up with his plan and the motive behind it, but also other hazy details surrounding this historic shooting. There are many things that don't make sense about the assassination attempt on Donald Trump, including witnesses at the event attempting to warn police about seeing the shooter on the roof of a nearby building, which the authorities seemingly ignored. Another question is why the location Crooks used wasn't covered by the Secret Service.
The run up to Crooks' attack on Donald Trump
In the months before suspect Thomas Matthew Crooks' assassination attempt on Trump, he received several boxes at his home that may have contained the materials he used to make the improvised explosive devices found in his car and home, per ABC News. Notably, he had a remote control detonator on him during the shooting connected to the bomb found in his Hyundai Sonata. Crooks had no military training and, strangely, the FBI found no internet searches on how to build bombs in his computer history. The day before the attack, Crooks spent time at the Clairton Sportsmen's Club, a shooting range where he and his father were members, according to CNN. A source told ABC News the AR style rifle the suspect used in the attack was owned by his father, who legally purchased it in 2013.
On July 13, 2024, Crooks went to the hardware store Home Depot and bought a ladder, senior officials told NBC News. Investigators are still determining whether he used this ladder to access the roof of the building where he fired from. It's located around 200 to 300 yards away from where Trump stood giving a speech. A senior law enforcement official also told CNN Crooks bought 50 rounds of ammunition from a local gun store the day of the shooting. The FBI hasn't yet determined if they were used in the attack. According to the New York Post, Crooks' dad called authorities on Saturday to report his son as missing, along with one of his guns.
His motive is still unknown
As the news spread of the assassination attempt on Donald Trump — not the first — the world reacted with shock and disbelief. Leaders decried the attack and political violence in general. Still, the FBI hasn't been able to find any evidence pointing to a political motive for Crooks' attack, even after searching his computer and home. "At present, we have not identified an ideology associated with the subject, but I want to remind everyone that we're still very early in this investigation," FBI Pittsburgh Special Agent in Charge Kevin Rojek told ABC News.
Jim Knapp, a former Bethel Park High School counselor until 2022, told the New York Post that he didn't see Crooks engage in politics. One ex-classmate saw different. Speaking to The Philadelphia Inquirer, Max R. Smith said Crooks was "definitely conservative" and once consistently took the "conservative side" amid a history debate that posed various government policy questions. Smith expressed confusion as to why Crooks would target Trump. The suspect's parents, both behavioral counselors, are seemingly politically unaligned — his father a Libertarian and his mother a Democrat.