Details surrounding the shooting during a Donald Trump rally Saturday continue to emerge, but little is known publicly about the shooter or his motive.
What we know about the shooter
Before being killed, the gunman fired off multiple shots — killing one rally attendee, injuring two others, as well as injuring Trump with a bullet that grazed his ear. The shooter was killed within seconds after the initial shots were fired.
Here’s what we know about the 20-year-old man who tried to assassinate the former president and current presidential nominee.
- His name was Thomas Matthew Crooks.
- He lived in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania.
- Investigation revealed “bomb-making materials in the car he drove to the rally,” The Associated Press reported.
- Crooks’ political leanings have not been made clear yet. He was a registered Republican in Pennsylvania, and he also donated $15 to a Democrat political action committee in 2021, the same day Biden was inaugurated.
- The AR-15-style assault rifle recovered at the scene was purchased legally by Crooks’ father, Matthew Crooks, in 2013, ABC News reported.
- He had no history of criminal behavior or traffic citations, according to Pennsylvania public records.
- There’s also no known record of Crooks having social media accounts, except for an account on Discord, an online chat app made for gamers. Discord told gaming news outlet Kotaku the account linked to him “was rarely utilized.”
- CNN interviews with classmates and neighbors paint Crooks as “quiet,” “a good student and something of a misfit in high school.”
- He recently earned an associate’s degree in engineering science and worked a job at a nursing home helping with meals, according to The New York Times.
- Photos from the scene of the shooting show that Crooks was sporting a T-shirt that was “branded with the name of a YouTube channel dedicated to providing content on guns and demolition,” The Guardian reported.
President Biden warned against assuming the motives for the shooting and urged the public to trust the FBI with the investigation during remarks from the Oval Office.
“I urge everyone — everyone, please, don’t make assumptions about his motives or his affiliations,” President Joe Biden said, per Deseret News.
Timeline of events
Investigations are ongoing, and the situation continues to develop, but here’s what we know about the timeline of events surrounding the shooting Saturday.
- 6:03 p.m.: Trump was slated to speak at 5 p.m. but didn’t end up taking the stage until 6:03 p.m., stepping onstage “clapping and pointing to the crowd” while “God Bless the U.S.A.” played, The New York Times reported.
- Between 6:03-6:10 p.m.: Officers receive reports about a man behaving suspiciously — he was pacing and was seen climbing a ladder on a nearby building, per The Associated Press.
- 6:10 p.m.: “Trump turns to his right and gestures toward a screen with a chart” — a chart that faced north, per the Times. Around the same time, a local officer approached Crooks and dropped to safety when Crooks pointed his weapon toward the officer.
- 6:11 p.m.: Trump was still turned to the side when shots fired. Trump lifted a hand to his right ear and quickly crouches to the ground behind the lectern.
- 6:11 p.m.: Secret Service agents rush the stage and cover Trump to shield him. More shots ring out, killing one attendee (Corey Comperature) and injuring two others (David Dutch and James Copenhaver). The shooter is also killed. An agent onstage says, “Shooter is down.” The gunman was a mere 400-500 feet away from Trump when he fired, despite executing the shots outside the rally venue.
- 6:12 p.m.: Trump begins to stand, surrounded by agents and throws up a fist and yells “Fight! Fight! Fight!”
- 6:51 p.m.: Trump’s spokesperson releases a statement that Trump “is fine and is being checked out at a local medical facility,” per CNN.
- 8:42 p.m.: Trump responds to the shooting in a Truth Social post — “I knew immediately that something was wrong in that I heard a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through my skin. Much bleeding took place, so I realized then what was happening.”