Investigators RELEASE Shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks Details

Questions are circulating about Thomas Matthew Crooks, the 20-year-old gunman slain by Secret Service agents after his assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump.

As more details have rolled in, a portrait of the wannabe assassin has started to solidify.

Crooks lived in Bethel Park, a community of about 33,000 residents south of Pittsburgh, and the shooting occurred roughly 45 miles east on Wednesday at Butler Farm Show grounds. Marcie Grimm, the administrator at Bethel Park Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Center near Korbuly’s home, said Crooks was a dietary aide.

“We are shocked and saddened to learn of his involvement as Thomas Matthew Crooks performed his job without concern and his background check was clean. We are fully cooperating with law enforcement officials at this time. Our thoughts and prayers go out to former President Trump and the victims impacted by this terrible tragedy,” the statement read in part.

Crooks was a 2022 graduate of Bethel Park High School. Classmates said he was an alienated loner, liked to play video games, and was often bullied. One former classmate, Jason Kohler told KDKA that Crooks loved to hunt so much that he would sometimes even wear his hunting clothes to school.

Sarah D’Angelo, another former classmate,said Crooks had “few friends” and was a lonely figure who did not belong to any group.

Crooks wasn’t listed in the 2022 Bethel Park High School Yearbook despite the video of him accepting a diploma of his class’ graduation this year. In his graduating year, Crooks was presented the triblive National Math and Science Initiative Star Award along with $500.

One of the first questions that fascinated many during the assassination attempt was where Crooks sat on basic politics. So far the clues investigators have discovered are mixed.

Crooks was a registered Republican, according to state voting records, though he would have been too young to vote in the 2020 presidential election. When he was 17 years old, Crooks gave $15 to liberal political action committee ActBlue on January 20, President Biden’s Inauguration Day.

Crooks’ body was found on the roof of a manufacturing plant more than 130 yards away from Trump’s rally stage with an AR-style semi-automatic assault rifle and wearing a Demolition Ranch t-shirt.

“I saw a post of his name and that he lived in Bethel Park, so I looked him up and he lives .3 miles away,” Dan Maloney, 30, said of the younger Crooks.

“I went down there and spoke to the county bomb squad at 1:06 a.m. He said he was about to go into the house.I didn’t know the guy. No one in this neighborhood really talks to each other.”

Maloney declined to immediately release details about the shooting but said, “It’s a tragedy. One person died, another is in the hospital. He went after a former president and likely the next president.”