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On the 14th, the FBI, which had been investigating the shooting of former President Donald Trump that occurred the previous day, announced that the incident was a solo act carried out by the now-deceased suspect, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks. They confirmed that there was no additional threat to the public.
The FBI added that they could not find any record of mental illness or threatening activity online from the suspect Crooks, nor could they find any evidence of him being engrossed in a specific ideology. They are investigating the case as an attempted assassination, but given the discovery of explosives, they also mentioned the possibility of a domestic terrorism case.
According to local media such as The New York Times (NYT) and CNN, the FBI investigation team confirmed at a media briefing that Crooks had never been on the FBI’s radar.
The investigation team revealed that the gun used by Crooks was a legally purchased AR-15 rifle, which was found next to the suspect’s body at the scene. They also found a device suspected to be an explosive while searching his vehicle, which was safely removed and is currently being further analyzed at an FBI lab.
The shooting motive of Crooks is still unclear. He was registered as a Republican voter in Pennsylvania and had voted for the first time in the 2022 mid-term elections. He also donated $15 to a progressive voter group on January 2, 2021.
Crooks’ father told CNN on the day of the shooting that he was trying to figure out “what the hell is going on” but would “wait until I talk to law enforcement” before speaking about his son.
Meanwhile, Crooks was known to come from an ordinary middle-class background. He was a Bethel Park, Pennsylvania resident, about an hour’s drive from the rally site. Dan Grzybek, a county council member in the area, told the NYT that Crooks was registered as a Republican, and his parents were registered as Democrats and Libertarians. He added that this mix of ideological orientations was common in the Bethel Park area.
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