The gunman who tried to kill former President Donald Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday has been identified by the FBI as Thomas Matthew Crooks, a 20-year-old from Pennsylvania, but officials have not released any additional information about him.
“This remains an active and ongoing investigation,” the FBI said in a statement early Sunday.
The gunman had no criminal record listed in Pennsylvania court records, and officials said they have not identified a motive. Voter registration records showed Crooks was registered as a Republican, although federal campaign finance records show he donated $15 to the Progressive Turnout Project, a liberal turnout group, through the Democratic donation platform ActBlue in January 2021.
Early Sunday morning, law enforcement officials closed all roads leading to the home of the gunman’s family in Bethel Park, south of Pittsburgh and about an hour’s drive from the rally in Butler. A number of relatives did not respond to messages seeking comment.
Crooks was killed after firing from an “elevated position” outside an outdoor gathering where Trump was speaking, according to the Secret Service.
Law enforcement officials found an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle near the body of a white man they believe was the gunman, according to two law enforcement officials.
Crooks is a 2022 graduate of Bethel Park High School, which has about 1,400 students, and received a $500 award that year from the National Math and Science Initiative, according to The Tribune-Review in western Pennsylvania.
In footage from the 2022 graduation ceremony, Crooks can be seen walking across the stage to modest applause after his name was called, a slim, bespectacled young man in a black graduation gown who briefly posed with a school official and accepted his diploma, Klix.ba writes.
