According to the FBI, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, was the suspect in the attempted assassination of former US President Donald Trump at a campaign rally on Saturday.
The Secret Service shot and killed Crooks seconds after he allegedly fired shots at the stage where Trump was speaking in Butler, Pennsylvania. The FBI is investigating the motive behind the attack, which left one rally attendee dead and two others critically injured. Trump sustained a gunshot wound to the ear.
State voter records indicate that Crooks was a registered Republican. The upcoming November 5 election would have marked the first time he was old enough to vote in a presidential race. Crooks resided about an hour from the location of the shooting in Butler. On Sunday, the Federal Aviation Administration announced the closure of airspace over Bethel Park for “special security reasons.”
When Crooks was 17, he donated $15 to ActBlue, a political action committee that raises funds for left-leaning and Democratic politicians, according to a 2021 Federal Election Commission filing. This donation was allocated to the Progressive Turnout Project, an organization that encourages Democratic voter turnout. The groups did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters.
Crooks graduated from Bethel Park High School in 2022, as reported by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and received a $500 “star award” from the National Math and Science Initiative.
Reuters could not immediately identify any social media accounts or other online activity by Crooks. Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, did not immediately respond to questions regarding the removal of any accounts related to the suspect.