Thomas Matthew Crooks – Attempted Assassin of Donald Trump
Thomas Mathew Crooks above, wearing glasses, braces, and an American flag t-shirt from a yearbook taken two years or so, ago.
Reports that I have received from news associates suggest that the shooter was a 20 year old brain-washed whack-job, a resident of Bethel Park in Pennsylvania, named Thomas Matthew Crooks. Records show he donated to a group who backed President Joe Biden on the day of the inauguration in 2020. He was too young to vote in the last election but got involved with a few political groups recently that are now being investigated using his phone, computer, and other electronic devices. Thomas decided to take his father’s legally purchased AR-15 rifle and using supersonic rounds of ammunition, attempted to assassinate the former President Donald Trump.
Attendees noticed him climbing a ladder, following which officers began their search for him, but were unable to locate him before he made it to the roof. Crooks, the shooter, wearing fatigues, slipped onto a rooftop location 150 yards (140 meters) from the stage where Trump was speaking, and began firing as many as eight rounds from an AR-15-style semi-automatic rifle. While an officer encountered Crooks on the roof, he could not wield his gun under such circumstances, after which the shooter took a shot towards Trump. The Secret Service snipers then shot him. A stunned witness said he saw the would-be assassin climb onto the top of a building outside the event, and that he was bewildered by the lack of action from agents. He said: ‘I’m thinking to myself, why is Trump still speaking, why have they not pulled him off the stage? The next thing you know, five or six shots ring out.’ After the gunman opened fire he saw the Secret Service ‘blow his head off,’ the man said.
Images of Crooks’ body showed that he was wearing a T-shirt from Demolition Ranch with a black American flag on the right arm, a popular YouTube channel that regularly posts videos of its creator firing off handguns and assault rifles at targets that include human mannequins. Thomas had bomb making equipment at his home and explosives in his car at the time of the shooting. Last night a bomb squad and agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were at an address registered to Crooks as cops stood guard in front of yellow police caution tape. His father, Matthew Crooks 53 stated that he was trying to figure out ‘what the hell is going on’ but would ‘wait until I talk to law enforcement’ before speaking.
Former classmates of the shooter described him as a student who was “quiet” and did not have many friends. He was a loner. He would sit alone at lunch and somebody who came across to everyone as lonely, a lot. Crooks tried to join the high school’s rifle team but was rejected and asked not to return. He didn’t just, not make the team, he was asked not to come back because how bad of a shot he was, and it was considered dangerous to have him around. He would completely miss the targets, sometimes by up to twenty feet. Disturbing anecdotes have emerged from those who knew Crooks dating back to his days at Bethel Park High School. Students also describe him as making inappropriate jokes regarding guns. Another member of the team said that Crooks “wasn’t really fit for the rifle team and he also was a terrible shot.” That attribute of Thomas’ happened to be very fortunate for Donald Trump, but not so lucky for one of the attendees. A 50 year old Firefighter Corey Comperatore, a father of two girls who was attending the rally with his family was killed as he became a human shield protecting his family. Two other bystanders were injured.
