Trump rally shooter identified by FBI as a 20-year-old registered Republican

Police cars outside the residence of suspect Thomas Matthew Crooks, Trump Rally Shooter, investigate the area in Pennsylvania, United States on July 14, 2024. (Kyle Mazza/Anadolu via Getty Images)

The FBI identified twenty-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks as the person responsible for shooting at former President Donald Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania Saturday evening. 

Crooks — a registered Republican — shot off several rounds from a semi-automatic AR-15 rifle while perched on the roof of a building just outside the security perimeter, causing the presumptive GOP nominee’s upper ear to be wounded. Secret Service agents killed Crooks at the scene, according to law enforcement officials.

Trump was flown to Newark, New Jersey late Saturday night. He reported his first-person account of the event that evening on TruthSocial, writing: “I knew immediately that something was wrong in that I heard a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin.” 

Crooks was identified by the FBI as a resident of Bethel Park, about 35 miles south of Butler where the rally was being held. He attended Bethel Park High School in 2022, according to a local media report and the school’s commencement video, CNN reported.

A listing in Pennsylvania’s voter database that matched Crooks’ name, age, and Bethel Park address established that Crooks was registered to vote as a Republican. The 2024 presidential election would have been the first he would be old enough to vote in, CNN reported.

In addition to this, the Federal Election Commission records indicate that in January 2021, a donor by the name of Thomas Crooks with the same address contributed $15 to a Democratic-aligned political action committee called the Progressive Turnout Project 

While Trump’s overall health remains well, the “multiple shots” fired at the event left one killed and two injured, the Secret Service confirmed on X.

Sunday morning, the former president expressed gratitude for everyone’s thoughts and prayers in a post to social media, thanking “God alone who prevented the unthinkable from happening.”

In an update from The Wall Street Journal, authorities found explosive devices in Crooks’ car, which was parked near the Trump rally, noting that “police received multiple reports of suspicious packages around near where the shooter was, authorities said, prompting them to dispatch bomb technicians.”

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