One year after the attempted assassination of now-President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, the motives of shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks remain elusive, even as more details have emerged.
The U.S. Secret Service, meanwhile, has initiated or implemented dozens of operational reforms since that day, which critics had deemed a “stunning failure” on the part of the agency.
Crooks, a 20-year-old Bethel Park resident, fired eight rounds at the Republican presidential candidate on July 13, 2024, after climbing onto the roof of the AGR building, a manufacturing plant located 130 yards away from the Butler Farm Show grounds stage.
One of the bullets grazed Trump’s ear before he ducked and USSS agents surrounded him. Two rallygoers were injured and a third, firefighter Corey Comperatore, was killed before a Secret Service sniper took out Crooks.
After escorting the fist-pumping Republican to an armored vehicle, agents found the gunman’s body, the AR-style 556 rifle used (which legally belonged to Crooks’ father), and Crooks’ car, which contained crude explosive devices.
Follow-up investigations revealed that Crooks was a member of a local gun club – which condemned the shooting – and was known by former classmates as a “loner” who was bullied in school. The FBI also found signs that Crooks was “strikingly intelligent,” having scored higher than 1500 on his pre-college SAT test, according to ABC news.
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Author: Ray Hilbrich
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