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The FBI identified a young man named Thomas Matthew Crooks from Bethel Park, a suburb of Pittsburgh, as the perpetrator of the murder. Trump shot during campaign rally And shocked the whole country.
Investigators believe Crooks, armed with a semiautomatic AR-15 rifle, opened fire on former President Barack Obama as he was addressing a crowd in Butler, Pennsylvania, killing one audience member and injuring two others.
The 20-year-old kitchen worker was killed instantly by a Secret Service sniper, officials said.
Yet in his affluent hometown, neighbors were shocked and seemed unable to understand why a quiet young man would become a suspect in a shooting.
The FBI said only that Crooks was “a suspect in the assassination attempt on the former president and is actively investigating the matter.”
Who was Thomas Matthew Crookes?
The FBI said Thomas Crooks did not have identification with him, so investigators used DNA and facial recognition technology to identify him.
He is from Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, about 70 kilometres (43 miles) from the site of the assassination attempt, and graduated from Bethel Park High School in 2022 with a $500 (£385) scholarship in maths and science, a local newspaper reported.
The BBC understands Crooks worked in the kitchen of a local nursing home not far from his home.
According to US media reports, state voter records show that he is a registered Republican.
He also reportedly donated $15 to the liberal campaign group ActBlue in 2021.
He has been a member of the Clayton Sportsman Club, a local shooting club, for at least a year.
Located south of Pittsburgh, the club is “one of the premier shooting facilities in the tri-state area of Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia,” according to its website. The club has more than 2,000 members.
It has several shooting ranges, including a high-powered rifle range that can shoot targets up to 171 meters away.
“Obviously, the club condemns this senseless act of violence in its entirety,” Robert S Bootay III, an attorney representing the group, told the Los Angeles Times.
Law enforcement officials believe the weapon used to shoot Donald Trump was purchased by Crooks’ father, according to the Associated Press.
Two police officers who spoke on condition of anonymity told The Associated Press that Crooks’ father purchased a weapon at least six months ago.
According to US media reports, Crooks was wearing a T-shirt from Demolition Ranch, a YouTube channel famous for its gun and explosion content with millions of subscribers, posting videos about various guns and explosive devices.
The day after the shooting, law enforcement sources also told the BBC’s US partner CBS that a suspicious device was found in Crooks’ vehicle.
The suspect was in possession of a commercially available device that appeared capable of activating the devices, CBS reported.
Bomb technicians were called to the scene to secure and investigate the device.
What is his motive?
After Crooks was identified, police and agencies are investigating his motives.
“We have not determined a motive for the crime at this time,” Kevin Rojek, a special agent with the FBI in Pittsburgh, said at a briefing Saturday evening.
Rojek said the investigation into what happened could take months and investigators will work “tirelessly” to find out Crokes’ motive.
Crooks’ father, Matthew Crooks, told CNN he was trying to figure out “what exactly happened” but would not talk about his son “until I talk to law enforcement.”
According to the FBI, Crooks’ family is cooperating with investigators.
Police blocked the road leading to the house where Crooks lived with his parents.
A neighbor told CBS that police evacuated her in the middle of the night without warning.
Bethel Park police said they are investigating whether there were bombs hidden around Crooks’ home.
Access to the area remains strictly controlled, with police cars blocking the roads. Only local residents are allowed in and out.
Law enforcement sources told CBS News they believe there was a degree of planning before the shooting.
But how long the program took remains the subject of investigation.
Police believe he acted alone but are continuing to investigate whether anyone accompanied him to the rally.
Who is he?
So far, people’s impressions of Crookes are very confusing and sometimes even contradictory.
Some local youths who went to school with him told local news outlet KDKA that he was a loner who was often bullied and sometimes wore “hunting clothes to school.”
Another of his former schoolmates, Summer Barkley, had a different assessment of him, telling the BBC that he “always did well in exams” and was “very interested in history”.
“He seemed to know everything about government and history,” she said. “But it was nothing special. … He was always friendly.”
She described him as being well-liked by teachers.
Others simply remember him as being quiet.
“He was there, but I can’t think of anyone who knew him well,” one former classmate, who asked not to be named, told the BBC. “He’s not someone I really miss. But he seemed nice.”
Jameson Myers, a former member of the Bethel Park High School varsity rifle team who graduated with Crockers in 2022, told CBS that Crockers was not selected for the team.
“He tried out and didn’t even make the junior team,” Mr. Myers added. “He never tried out again for the rest of high school.”
Another former classmate told ABC News that Crooks was a “terrible shooter” and “not a good fit for the rifle team.” The school district said there was no record of Crooks trying out for the rifle team and that he “never showed up on the roster.”
Mr Myers remembered Crooks seemed to be a “normal boy” who was “not particularly popular but was never bullied or anything”.
“He was a good kid who never said anything bad about anybody, and I never thought he would do anything that I’ve seen him do over the past few days.”
Max Smith, who took a U.S. history course with Crooks, told The Philadelphia Inquirer that his former classmate was “definitely conservative.”
Mr. Smith recalled a mock debate they both participated in. He said: “Most of the class sided with the liberals, but Tom always insisted on standing on the conservative side no matter what.”
“It makes me wonder why he would want to assassinate a conservative candidate,” he said.
Other community members simply said they were shocked that the shooting suspect came from the quiet, tree-lined streets of Bethel Park.
Among them was Jason Mackey, a 27-year-old local man who lived near Crooks’ residence and worked at Crooks’ school when he was a student.
Although Mr. McKee said he did not know Crooks, he still found it hard to believe.
“It’s shocking. You don’t expect something of this magnitude to happen in your backyard,” he said. “It’s just crazy.”
Who were the victims of the shooting?
The shooting left one person dead and two injured.
According to CBS, the three victims were all adult men and were audience members.
At a news conference Sunday, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro identified the deceased as 50-year-old volunteer fire chief Corey Comperatore, who died when he “threw himself on his family” to protect them.
He said Competaretore “died a heroic death”.
A GoFundMe page organized by Meredith O’Rourke, the Trump campaign’s national finance director, was set up within hours of the attack to channel donations to the families of those injured.
To date, the campaign has raised more than $340,000 (£267,000).
In a post on his TRUTH Social platform, Trump said he was “hit by a bullet that went through the upper part of my right ear” and that he felt the bullet “go through the skin.”
When security guards led Trump away, blood was visible on his ears and face.
A statement released on the Republican National Committee (RNC) website said Trump was “in good condition” and thanked law enforcement officers.
How far is he from Donald Trump?
A witness told the BBC he saw a man – believed to be Crooks – standing on the roof of a building with a rifle before Trump was shot.
Video footage obtained by TMZ shows The moment the shooting started.
According to CBS, the attacker opened fire with “an AR-style rifle.”
Law enforcement sources also told CBS that a bystander tipped him off as a person of interest, but police lost track of him before the shooting began.
However, the FBI said it was not clear what type of gun the attacker used or how many shots were fired.
Officials said Secret Service snipers returned fire and killed the gunman.
Subsequent footage showed armed police approaching a body on the rooftop.
British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).
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