Three days have passed since the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, and authorities are still trying to find out what led to the attack. Investigators are trying to put together the events and are actively looking at a possible motive. Witnesses at the Butler, Pa., rally reported seeing the gunman on the roof of an adjacent building before he opened fire. It has since been revealed that police were stationed inside the very building the attacker climbed, but not on the roof, for some reason.
In the 48 hours preceding the attack, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks visited several locations in his suburban Pittsburgh neighborhood. A law enforcement official reported to CNN that on Friday, Crooks practiced shooting at a range where he held a membership. The next day, he bought a five-foot ladder from Home Depot and 50 rounds of ammunition from a gun store.
Crooks then drove his Hyundai Sonata to a rally for the 2024 Republican nominee in Butler, Pennsylvania, where he joined thousands of attendees. He had an improvised explosive device hidden in his car’s trunk, connected to a transmitter he carried. Using his newly purchased ladder, Crooks scaled a nearby building and eventually opened fire on the former president.
Investigators are now piecing together Crooks’ actions before the attack but are stumped by the lack of clear motives. Despite thorough searches of his digital and personal life, no political or ideological reasons have emerged. His interests appeared to center around computer coding and gaming.
A troubling discovery was made when a remote control detonator was found on Crooks, along with explosives in his car. This suggests he might have intended to set off an explosion as a distraction during the shooting. He used an AR-style rifle legally purchased by his father, Matthew Crooks, who owns over 20 firearms. The investigation into how Crooks assembled the explosives in his car is ongoing, with no evidence yet found of him researching bomb-making online.
Crooks and his father were members of the Clairton Sportsmen’s Club, a gun club located about 25 minutes from their home where they frequently went shooting together. The club has around 2,000 members and features a 200-yard-long rifle range set within 180 acres of wooded hills south of Pittsburgh. According to CNN, the range is longer than the distance between Crooks and Trump during the shooting incident.
Following the incident, Crooks’ father was contacted but chose not to comment until speaking with law enforcement. His initial reaction to the news was one of confusion and a need for more information. The FBI managed to access his son’s cell phone, hoping it would provide insights into his motives, but officials remain puzzled. According to law enforcement sources, Crooks’ parents, who have been cooperating with the investigation, described their son as solitary and apolitical, noting a lack of recent awareness of his activities.
