FBI identifies Trump rally shooter as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks
The FBI named Crooks in a statement early Sunday morning, identifying him as a resident of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania – about 35 miles south of Butler, where Trump was holding his rally.
Crooks fired on Trump while perched on a nearby building rooftop outside the rally’s security perimeter, before being killed by the Secret Service, according to law enforcement officials.
Witnesses at the rally described a “bloody” and chaotic scene, with people trying to administer first aid to those hit by the gunfire and struggling with the dense crowd.
The shooting left one rally attendee dead and two others in critical condition, authorities said. Trump was injured, writing on social media that he’d been hit by a bullet in the upper part of his ear – though his campaign said he was otherwise fine. Trump flew back to Newark, New Jersey, late Saturday night.
Now attention turns to the active and ongoing investigation, which involves multiple federal and state bodies. The FBI has urged members of the public to submit any information they have through a tip line or the agency website, including photos or videos of the shooting.
Crooks graduated from Bethel Park High School in 2022, according to a local media report and a video of the school’s commencement.
He was registered to vote as a Republican, according to a listing in Pennsylvania’s voter database that matched his name, age, and a Bethel Park address that law enforcement was searching Saturday night and is linked to Crooks in public records.
This year’s presidential election would have been the first he was old enough to vote in.
Federal Election Commission records show that a donor listed as Thomas Crooks with the same address gave $15 to a Democratic-aligned political action committee called the Progressive Turnout Project in January 2021.
When reached by CNN late Saturday night, Crooks’ father, Matthew Crooks, said he was trying to figure out “what the hell is going on” but would “wait until I talk to law enforcement” before speaking about his son.
After being killed at the scene, Crooks didn’t have any identification on his body, so agents had to “run his DNA and get biometric confirmation,” Kevin Rojek, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Pittsburgh field office, said at a press conference Saturday night before the gunman was named.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
CNN’s Evan Perez, Casey Tolan, Curt Devine, Majlie de Puy Kamp, Kyung Lah and Audrey Ash contributed to this report.
The investigation is now focusing on us, as the FBI urges the public to provide any relevant information about the shooting through their tip line or website. Despite the lack of identification on his body, Crooks was positively identified due to biometric confirmation, demonstrating the importance of collecting evidence from us.
