What We Know—and Don’t Know—So Far About the Trump Rally Gunman

Twenty-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks was identified by the FBI on Sunday, July 14, as the shooter behind the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump during a campaign rally in Butler, Pa., on the evening of July 13 that left one bystander dead and two others injured.

Crooks fired multiple shots towards where Trump stood before he was killed at the scene by a Secret Service sniper. Trump’s right ear was wounded, while a bystander died and two others were injured.

After weeks of investigation, Crooks’ motives remain unclear. Here’s what we know about his background.

‘No indication of any mental health issues’

The FBI says that Crooks was not known to the agency prior to the incident.

In a call with reporters on July 14, the FBI special agent in charge, Kevin Rojek, said there was “no indication of any mental health issues” regarding the shooter.

During a private congressional briefing on July 17, the New York Times reported, the FBI revealed that the gunman’s online search history included a query on “major depressive disorder.”

Limited social media presence

President Joe Biden on July 14 urged people to refrain from making assumptions about Crooks’ ideology. “Let the FBI do their job, and their partner agencies do their job,” he said.

The FBI has interviewed more than 100 people, including Crooks’ family and friends, and cracked into his two phones using the Israeli technology Cellebrite, according to the Washington Post, but has yet to find evidence of his motivations.

Read More: What to Know About Women in Secret Service as Critics Blame ‘DEI’ for Trump’s Shooting

Crooks reportedly had a limited social media presence, though a spokesperson for the platform Discord said in a statement shared with TIME that the company “identified” a “rarely utilized” account that appears to be linked to Crooks. The spokesperson said that the company is cooperating with law enforcement but that it “found no evidence” the account was used “to plan this incident, promote violence, or discuss his political views.”

Fox News reported that the FBI told Senators on July 17 that Crooks had written on gaming platform Steam: “July 13 will be my premiere, watch as it unfolds.” But during congressional testimony on July 24, FBI director Christopher Wray said this statement was not from Crooks but from another individual who was “part of some sick joke.”

In a Senate committee hearing on July 30, FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate said the agency discovered a social media account believed to be linked to the shooter from 2019 to 2020. Some of the over 700 comments in that account “appear to reflect antisemitic and anti-immigration themes to espouse political violence and are described as extreme in nature,” according to Abbate.

Abbate also said the FBI is verifying a Gab account supposedly linked to Crooks but with “differing points of view” from the other account. Andrew Torba, CEO of Gab, a platform popular among the far-right, said on X that the account associated with Crooks was “unequivocally” in favor of President Biden. 

Registered Republican, donor to progressives

State public voting records show that Crooks was a registered Republican, while Federal Election Commision documents show that a donor with the same name and address gave $15 to ActBlue, the Democratic fundraising apparatus, on Jan. 20, 2021—the date of President Joe Biden’s inauguration. The donation was earmarked for the Progressive Turnout Project.

A spokesperson for the Progressive Turnout Project told CNN that “the email address associated with the contribution only made the one contribution and was unsubscribed from our lists 2 years ago.” They added: “We unequivocally condemn political violence in all of its forms, and we denounce anyone who chooses violence over peaceful political action.”

During the July 17 congressional briefing, the FBI said it found no indication Crooks had any strong partisan political views and that he had searched images of public figures including Trump and Biden as well as FBI director Wray and Attorney General Merrick Garland, according to the New York Times. Crooks reportedly also looked up dates of Trump’s public appearances and the upcoming Democratic National Convention.

From an affluent Pittsburgh suburb

The FBI identified Crooks’ hometown as Bethel Park, a suburb of Pittsburgh about an hour south of where the Trump rally was held. Dan Gryzbek, a county council member representing the area, described the neighborhood where Crooks’ family lived as “pretty firmly middle class, maybe upper-middle class” to the New York Times. According to the Census Bureau, Bethel Park’s population is 93% white with a 1.3 times higher per capita income than the rest of Pennsylvania.

The address of Crooks’ family home was in a district that Biden won in 2020 with 52% of the vote to Trump’s 46%. Crooks’ father is a registered Libertarian and his mother is a registered Democrat, according to voter records, CNN and the Times reported. Both parents are licensed professional counselors, according to state records.

Sources told the Washington Post that both Crooks’ parents have health issues and appeared to investigators as loving parents who may not have been closely attuned to their son’s activities.

Seems to have acted alone

“While the investigation to date indicates the shooter acted alone,” the FBI said on July 14, “the FBI continues to conduct logical investigative activity to determine if there were any co-conspirators associated with this attack. At this time, there are no current public safety concerns.”

The FBI repeated that Crooks appeared to act alone during the agency’s briefing to Congress on July 17. Director Wray also said there’s no known foreign nexus, in response to a question from Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) in reference to recent reporting about an unrelated Iranian assassination plot targeting Trump, PunchBowl News reported.

Wray also told the House Judiciary Committee on July 24 that on July 6, Crooks searched on Google “how far away was Oswald from Kennedy”—referring to the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy by Lee Harvey Oswald—and on the same day, he registered to attend Trump’s Butler rally.

The next day, Abbate said in the July 30 hearing, Crooks was at the Butler rally site for about 20 minutes, which showed his “advanced planning and reconnaissance.”

Used an AR-15-style rifle purchased legally by his father

Multiple law enforcement officials have said that the firearm used by Crooks in the shooting was an AR-style rifle that was legally purchased by Crooks’ father in 2013. Crooks’ family is cooperating with investigators, Rojek has said.

Read More: How the AR-15 Rifle Became America’s Most Dangerous Weapon

NBC News reported July 15 that more than a dozen other guns were found in a search of the Crooks’ family home.

A law enforcement official told CNN Monday that on the morning of the Trump campaign rally, Crooks purchased a five-foot ladder and 50 rounds of ammunition before driving to Butler. It’s unclear if Crooks used these in the assassination attempt.

A rifle enthusiast since he was a teen

According to photos and videos of the scene of the shooting, Crooks was wearing a shirt associated with Demolition Ranch, a popular gun channel on YouTube. (Matt Carriker, the host of the channel, said in a video statement on July 15 that he was “shocked and confused” and offered condolences to the victims of the shooting. “This channel was never meant to incite violence or hate—it never has, it isn’t, and it never will be a channel that does that,” he said.)

Crooks had tried out for his high school’s junior varsity rifle team when he was a freshman, CBS reported, but classmate Jameson Myers said Crooks didn’t make the team and never tried out again.

Jameson Murphy, another former classmate, told the New York Post that Crooks “was such a comically bad shot he was unable to make the team and left after the first day.” Another classmate also told the Post that the rifle team coach had concerns about Crooks based on “some crass jokes” Crooks made and how he interacted with others. “Our old coach was a stickler, he trained Navy marksmen, so he knew people. He knew when someone’s not the greatest person,” the classmate said.

Crooks did, however, belong to a local gun club, the Clairton Sportsmen’s Club, which has a 200-yard rifle range among its facilities. The club confirmed Crooks’ membership in a statement provided to multiple media outlets that admonished the violence and offered condolences to the victims but said it couldn’t offer any more details as investigations remain ongoing.

The day before the shooting, Crooks visited a shooting range to practice firing, according to a law enforcement official speaking to CNN.

Amid speculation that Crooks may have had a military background, the Pentagon told the Associated Press that “there is no military service affiliation for the suspect with that name or date of birth” in their databases across military branches.

Left behind explosive materials

The FBI said that, when it searched Crooks’ home and vehicle to collect additional evidence, suspicious devices were found and have since been “rendered safe” by bomb technicians.

According to CNN, investigators found a bulletproof vest, three fully loaded magazines, and two remote-controlled explosives in his car, which was parked near the rally. An unnamed law enforcement official told CNN Crooks was found with a detonator on his body, and his car’s trunk contained a metal box of explosives connected with wires to a receiver. He also had a drone, which, the Wall Street Journal reported, he used to aerially scout the site of the rally just hours before the shooting.

Sources told Fox News that law enforcement also found bomb-making materials in Crooks’ home, while CNN reported that investigators found an additional remote-controlled explosive device, another bulletproof vest, and a 3D printer in his home—and that Crooks had received deliveries of multiple packages, including some marked as potentially hazardous, in recent months.

A nursing home aid with an engineering science degree

Crooks graduated from the Community College of Allegheny County with an associate degree in engineering science just over two months ago, a school official confirmed to the New York Times.

Crooks worked as a dietary aid at the Bethel Park Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. “We are shocked and saddened to learn of his involvement,” Marcie Grimm, the facility administrator, said in a statement to multiple media outlets, adding that Crooks “performed his job without concern and his background check was clean.”

A colleague at the nursing home described Crooks as caring and apolitical at work to CNN. “It’s hard seeing everything that’s going on online,” the colleague said, “because he was a really, really good person that did a really bad thing, and I just wish I knew why.”

Officials told CNN that Crooks normally worked on Saturdays but had requested time off on the day of Trump’s rally, telling his boss that he had “something to do.”

A quiet, lonely nerd in high school

Bethel Park School District confirmed in a statement that Crooks graduated from Bethel Park High in 2022. It offered its condolences to victims of the shooting and said it is cooperating with law enforcement investigations.

According to the New York Times, Crooks’ only record of disciplinary problems was being sent to detention once in the eighth grade for chewing gum.

Former peers, speaking to media outlets, painted a portrait of a social outcast who kept a low profile.

“He didn’t really fit in with everybody else,” classmate Sarah D’Angelo told the Wall Street Journal. “He was there but I can’t think of anyone who knew him well,” another classmate told BBC.

Crooks was “a loner” who “would sit alone at lunch,” classmate Jason Kohler told ABC News. He would regularly wear camouflage outfits and was “bullied” for the way he dressed, Kohler told NBC News.

“There was definitely chatter about him just looking a little different,” another classmate, who asked not to be named, told CNN. “Almost a retro nerd vibe.”

Summer Barkley, another classmate, told BBC that Crooks was “always getting good grades on tests” and was “very passionate about history.”

Zach Bradford, another classmate, described Crooks to the New York Times as “incredibly intelligent” and said his views in high school seemed “slightly right leaning.”

Most—but not all—who knew Crooks expressed disbelief at his involvement in the shooting at the Trump rally.

Jim Knapp, Crooks’ since-retired guidance counselor at the school, described Crooks to the Times as “a very good student” and said “not once did he ever get in trouble.”

“He never outwardly spoke about his political views or how much he hated Trump or anything,” D’Angelo added to the Wall Street Journal.

“I was just, like, shocked—I just couldn’t believe he did something that bold, considering he was such a quiet and kept-to-himself kind of person,” the anonymous classmate told CNN.

“I will say he was definitely nerdy, for sure, but he never gave off that he was creepy,” classmate Mark Sigafoos told CBS. “He seemed like he wouldn’t hurt a fly.”

But Julianna Grooms, who graduated a year after Crooks, told the Wall Street Journal that Crooks stood out for his awkwardness. “If someone would say something to his face, he would just kind of stare at them,” she said. “People would say he was the student who would shoot up high school.”

—Koh Ewe contributed reporting.