Bethel Park, a Pittsburgh suburb, is reeling after the FBI confirmed Thomas Matthew Crooks, a young local guy, as the man who shot at Donald Trump at a campaign rally and startled the nation.
Investigators suspect Crooks, equipped with a semi-automatic AR-15 weapon, opened fire on the former president when he was speaking in Butler, Pennsylvania, killing one and wounding two.
Officials said a Secret Service sniper killed the 20-year-old kitchen worker at the site.
His well-to-do local neighbors are shocked to learn that a peaceful young guy was accused of the shooting.
The FBI has only claimed Crooks was the “subject involved in the assassination attempt on the former president and that an active investigation was under way.”
Thomas Matthew Crooks—who?
The FBI said DNA and facial recognition were used to identify Thomas Crooks, who was without ID.
A local newspaper said that he graduated from Bethel Park High School in 2022 with a $500 (£385) math and science medal. He lived 70 kilometers (43 miles) from the attempted assassination scene.
Apparently, he gave $15 to leftist ActBlue in 2021.
He joined the Clairton Sportsmen’s Club, a local shooting club, for a year.
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. It has over 2,000 members.
Multiple gun ranges include a high-power rifle range with 171-metre targets.
“Obviously, the club fully admonishes the senseless act of violence,” club attorney Robert S. Bootay III told the Los Angeles Times.
Crooks wore a Demolition Ranch T-shirt, a YouTube channel known for firearms and demolition, according to US media. The channel has millions of subscribers and shows guns and explosives.
