Trump rally shooter identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20-year-old Pennsylvania man. Here's what we know so far.
The gunman who fired shots at former President Donald Trump in an assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, Saturday night has been identified by the FBI as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks. He was killed by a Secret Service sniper, officials said.
One audience member at the rally, Pennsylvania firefighter Corey Comperatore, was killed in the shooting, and two other men are in critical condition, officials said. A spokesperson for Allegheny General Hospital said the injured victims were stable, although still in critical condition, on Sunday night.
Who was the shooter?
In a statement, the FBI said:
"The FBI has identified Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, as the subject involved in the assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump on July 13, in Butler, Pennsylvania. This remains an active and ongoing investigation, and anyone with information that may assist with the investigation is encouraged to submit photos or videos online at FBI.gov/butler or call 1-800-CALL-FBI."
Federal investigators said the gunman was not carrying identification, so they analyzed his DNA to provide a biometric confirmation of his identity.
Crooks was from Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, a Pittsburgh suburb about an hour south of Butler. The town in Allegheny County is home to about 30,000 people and has one high school with about 1,300 students.
He graduated from the Community College of Allegheny County in May with an associate in science degree in engineering science, a spokesperson for the college confirmed to CBS News. He was expected to enroll in Robert Morris University in the fall, a spokesperson for the private university in the Pittsburgh area confirmed Monday to CBS News, and had not yet attended classes there.
Bethel Park School District confirmed to CBS Pittsburgh station KDKA that Crooks was a 2022 graduate of Bethel Park High School. School officials pledged to work with law enforcement investigating the shooting, and offered condolences to those affected by the attack.
Some Bethel Park residents recalled interactions with the gunman and his family in interviews with CBS News Pittsburgh after the shooting.
"I had a really pleasant conversation with them," said Alleghany County councilman Dan Grzybek, who lives on the same street as the shooter and visited the home while campaigning. "I got the perception they were nice people."
Grzybek said he fears the shooter's actions will "result in further political violence."
Former high school classmate Jameson Myers, a member of the school's varsity rifle team, told CBS News that Crooks had tried out for the team freshman year but did not make the junior varsity roster and did not return to try out for the team in subsequent years.
He called Crooks a "nice kid who never talked poorly of anyone," and he said, "I never have thought him capable of anything I've seen him do in the last few days."
Fellow classmate Summer Barkley told CBS Pittsburgh reporter Megan Schiller that although Crooks wasn't popular, he still had a group of friends and was a good student beloved by teachers. She said she didn't see any red flags that would lead her to believe he would do something like this.
Mark Sigafoos, who graduated with Crooks and sat near him in class, told CBS News that while it was possible Crooks was bullied in school, he never personally saw it happen. Sigafoos described him as smart, friendly and frequently engaged during class, "definitely nerdy for sure," but said he "never gave off that he was creepy or like a school shooter."
"He seemed like he wouldn't hurt a fly," he said.
Another classmate, Jason Koehler, had a somewhat different view, telling Schiller that Crooks was a loner who was bullied relentlessly for his appearance and wore camo/hunting outfits in class. He said Crooks would often sit in the cafeteria alone before class. He also said Crooks was very COVID-conscious and wore a surgical mask long after they were required.
Crooks also worked at Bethel Park Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Center as a dietary aide, according to the facility's administrator. The University of Pittsburgh confirmed Monday that Crooks had been admitted for the fall semester to study mechanical engineering, but according to a statement from the school, he informed the university in March he had decided not to attend.
Crooks also had a membership at a nearby gun club for at least a year. Bill Sellitto, the president of the Clairton Sportsmen's Club in Clairton, Pennsylvania, told CBS News that Crooks was a member.
"We can confirm that Mr. Crooks was a member of the Clairton Sportsmen's Club. Beyond that, the club is unable to make any additional commentary in relation to this matter in light of pending law enforcement investigations," Sellitto said in a statement. "Obviously, the Club fully admonishes the senseless act of violence that occurred yesterday."
A law enforcement source noted that at the time of the shooting, the gunman was wearing a shirt that apparently read "DemolitionRanch," a popular gun-related YouTube channel with over 11 million subscribers.
What was his motive?
Federal authorities are still investigating what may have prompted the gunman to carry out the shooting, but so far, they say it appears he acted alone.
The FBI is investigating whether the shooter was "motivated by a violent extremist ideology or had any association with additional plotters or co-conspirators," according to an FBI and Department of Homeland Security bulletin sent to law enforcement Monday and obtained by CBS News.
"We do not currently have an identified motive," said Kevin Rojek, FBI Pittsburgh special agent in charge, at a briefing late Saturday, and President Biden said the shooter's motives were still unclear in an address from the Oval Office the following night.
"There is no place in America for this kind of violence, for any violence, ever. Period. No exceptions. We can't allow this violence to become normalized," Mr. Biden said. "The political rhetoric in this country has gotten very heated. It's time to cool it down. We all have a responsibility to do that."
A law enforcement official said early Sunday that no foreign terrorism ties were known at the time and the suspect was not on the radar of law enforcement.
There was also no indication that Crooks ever had a connection to any military branch, officials confirmed to CBS News.
Crooks' political leanings were not immediately clear. He was registered as a Republican voter in Pennsylvania but Federal Election Commission records show he made a $15 donation to a Democratic-aligned group.
An FBI official said the family of the shooter is cooperating with investigators.
FBI officials told reporters during a press call Sunday afternoon that determining the motive is the primary objective of the agency's investigation. Officials also said there was no indication of Crooks having mental health issues.
Crooks did have a social media presence, the FBI officials said Sunday. Agents are combing through his posts and emails but have found nothing so far that reveals a motive or anything threatening.
In a Monday statement, the FBI confirmed they were able to access the shooter's phone and continue to analyze his electronic devices. Sources told CBS News the phone has so far not yielded any information about his beliefs or a potential motive.
Meanwhile, the public has submitted over 2,000 tips to the FBI for examination.
What weapon did he have?
The gunman was armed with a semiautomatic AR-style rifle, multiple law enforcement sources said. He had purchased a box of ammunition with 50 rounds on the day of the shooting, a law enforcement source confirmed to CBS News on Monday.
Law enforcement sources told CBS News the gun was legally purchased in 2013 and was registered to the shooter's father, Matthew Crooks.
Investigators found three suspected improvised explosive devices, according to an FBI/DHS bulletin. Two were found in the shooter's car and another was found at his residence.
A source confirmed on Tuesday that authorities found rudimentary bomb-making materials at the gunman's residence and inside his vehicle, which were being analyzed by the FBI.
FBI investigation into social media activity
In the days and weeks after the shooting, Investigators worked to piece together any online activity that might shed light on the gunman's planning or motive. They said they found he had searched online for information related to Trump, President Biden, the former president's whereabouts on July 13 and the Democratic National Convention. They said he also had encrypted apps on his phone that they were trying to access.
Officials found "a social media account which is believed to be associated with the shooter, in about the 2019, 2020 timeframe," FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate told a joint hearing of the Senate Judiciary and Homeland Security committees in late July. "There were over 700 comments," he said, that "appear to reflect antisemitic and anti-immigration themes, to espouse political violence, and are described as extreme in nature."
What protections were there for Trump?
Trump said in a social media post that a bullet pierced the upper part of his right ear. He was checked at a local hospital before leaving the area under Secret Service protection and flying to New Jersey late Saturday night. Hi son, Eric Trump, told CBS News on Wednesday that his father didn't have stitches, but had a "nice flesh wound."
Trump's Secret Service detail was given additional assets that are part of the protocol for the presumptive nominee due to his heavy campaigning, which includes additional manpower, counter-sniper, drones and robotic dogs, a law enforcement official said. On Saturday, there were four counter-sniper teams on site, the official said. At least a dozen additional police officers and sheriff's deputies were assisting the Secret Service and Pennsylvania State Police with rally security, the Associated Press reported.
Additionally, Trump's teleprompter is protective and the flag and podium banners are made of steel, the law enforcement official said.
In a statement Sunday morning, U.S. Secret Service spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi said the agency recently "added protective resources and capabilities to the former President's security detail," and said any suggestion that they had rebuffed a request for more security "is absolutely false."
"The U. S. Secret Service takes threats seriously, and it takes actions based on those threats as warranted," he said. "The U.S. Secret Service is constantly evaluating the very dynamic threat environment and responding to it in the fulfillment of its responsibilities."
What did witnesses see?
Cellphone video taken at the rally shows attendees pointing toward the gunman and trying to inform authorities that he was there. The video was taken two minutes before the shooter fired at Trump. In it, people are seen running away from the area less than 15 seconds before shots were fired. Moments after that, some people in the crowd start shouting that a man on the roof has a gun.
One man who was at the rally said that soon after Trump started speaking, he saw a man "bear crawling" up a building.
"We're pointing at the guy," said the witness, named Greg. "He had a rifle — you could literally see him with a rifle." He told the BBC that he and others told the police and were pointing him out to U.S. Secret Service agents. He estimated that the man was on the roof for "three or four minutes" before shots were heard.
Other witnesses told CBS Pittsburgh station KDKA that they also saw the gunman and tried to alert officers before the shooting.
Sequence of events
Details continued to emerge on Tuesday about the sequence of events leading up to the shooting. In addition to the ammunition that he purchased, the gunman also bought a ladder at Home Depot before the rally on Saturday, two law enforcement sources told CBS News, after it was first reported by CNN. Home Depot condemned the violence in a statement.
It was unclear whether the shooter brought that ladder to Trump's event, where he ultimately ended up on the roof of a building about 410 feet from the main stage and just outside the bounds of a security perimeter established on the property, according to law enforcement sources and video analyzed by CBS News.
Along with witnesses who recalled seeing the gunman, multiple law enforcement officers were aware of his presence on the roof just before the shooting happened.
Three snipers from local tactical teams had been deployed to assist Secret Service agents at the rally and were stationed inside the building that the shooter used in the attack, a local law enforcement officer with direct knowledge of the events told CBS News. The security operations plan had them stationed inside in order to face the rally and scan the crowd through the windows. Local news outlet BeaverCountain.com initially reported details about the three snipers.
One of those snipers saw the gunman outside of the building, looking up at the roof and observing the building before disappearing, according to the officer who spoke to CBS News. The sniper saw the gunman as he returned to the building, sat down and looked at his phone.
That's when one of the snipers took a picture of the gunman, and then saw the shooter looking through a rangefinder minutes before he tried to assassinate the former president, the officer said. The sniper radioed to the command post right away and tried to send the photo that he'd taken of the gunman up the chain of command.
As this was happening, a local police officer was hoisted up onto the roof of the building by another officer to check the premises, after receiving reports from bystanders who spotted the gunman, the sheriff of Butler County told CBS News Pittsburgh. The officer saw the shooter, who pointed the rifle at him. The officer then let go and fell from the roof, the sheriff said.
At that point, the gunman turned to face the rally and fired between six and eight rounds.
-Jessica Kegu, Clare Hymes, Robert Legare, Pat Milton, Andres Triay, Megan Schiller, Anna Schecter, Nicole Sganga, Adam Yamaguchi and other CBS News staff contributed to this report.
