Trump rally shooter was a bullied ‘loner’ but never shared his political views, classmates say
Students who attended Bethel Park High with shooting suspect Thomas Matthew Crooks recalled a video game enthusiast without many friends.
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Your support makes all the difference.Former classmates of the 20-year-old gunman authorities identified as the would-be assassin who fired several rounds at former President Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania rally on Saturday remembered him as a somewhat unremarkable teen who enjoyed video games and didn’t make much noise about politics.
Thomas Matthew Crooks, who lived with his parents in the Pittsburgh suburb of Bethel Park before he was shot dead by Secret Service snipers following his attempt on Trump’s life, “never outwardly spoke about his political views or how much he hated Trump or anything,” Sarah D’Angelo, who attended Bethel Park High School with Crooks, told The Wall Street Journal. She said Crooks had “a few friends,” but not “a whole friend group,” and recalled Crooks’ penchant for playing games on his laptop in homeroom.
Two former classmates told The New York Times that they hadn’t noticed any obvious red flags that might have foretold future violence, with one telling the outlet he was stunned to hear authorities had named Crooks as the shooter.
Crooks was “incredibly intelligent,” Zach Bradford, who was in American history and government classes with him, told the Times. His politics were “slightly right leaning,” according to Bradford.
Bradford said some of Crooks’ fellow students gave him the occasional ribbing, and another said he “didn’t seem, like, really weird or anything.”
“I would have pegged him as a Republican,” a third former classmate told the New York Post.
Conversely, Jason Kolher, another Bethel Park HS graduate told KDKA that Crooks often wore hunting-style clothes to school and was bullied nonstop.
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Speaking to reporters Sunday on a telephone press briefing, FBI officials said they believe Crooks acted alone and that there was no indication that he was part of a larger conspiracy. The bureau, which said it is investigating the shooting as possible domestic terrorism, has not discovered any evidence that Crooks had mental health issues. He had never previously been under FBI investigation, and there are “currently no public safety concerns at present,” Special Agent in Charge Kevin Rojek, said.
Investigators discovered a “rudimentary” explosive device in Crooks’ car, according to the FBI, and said it had been sent to the FBI lab in Quantico, Virginia, along with Crooks’ cellphone and the AR-15 assault-style rifle found next to his body after Secret Service snipers shot him dead.
An unnamed federal law enforcement official told the Times that agents are seeking a warrant to search Crooks’ phone, which they hope will shed light on further clues, such as a possible motive. The official said a review of Crooks’ online activity has thus far not turned up anything unusual, and that Crooks liked to play online chess and was learning how to code. Investigators say they have not located any sort of manifesto left behind by Crooks, but that agents are digging into every possible aspect of the suspect’s online and real-world lives.
A statement issued Sunday by Discord, a social media platform favored by gamers, said the company had homed in on a deleted account set up by Crooks, but that it had been “rarely utilized, has not been used in months, and we have found no evidence that it was used to plan this incident, promote violence or discuss his political views.”
Crooks was a registered Republican, according to state registration records. City councilman Dan Grzybek, who represents the area where Crooks lived, said he met the family last year. Crooks’ father was a Libertarian, and his mother a Democrat, according to Grzybek, who told the Times this was “a fairly typical mix for the area.”
In remarks on Sunday, Attorney General Merrick Garland said he has “directed the FBI, the ATF, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Pennsylvania, and the [Justice] Department’s National Security Division to bring every available resource to bear on this investigation.”
“I want to reiterate that the violence that we saw yesterday is an attack on our democracy itself,” Garland said. “The Justice Department has no tolerance for such violence. And as Americans, we must have no tolerance for it. This must stop.”
While law enforcement continues to probe the situation, the Crooks family is also searching for their own answers.
As Crooks’ stunned uncle told The Independent, “I don’t know what to say.”