The shooter who shot former President Donald Trump in an assassination attempt at a crusade rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday night is known to the FBI as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks. He killed via a Secret Service sniper, authorities said.
One member of the public at the rally, Pennsylvania firefighter Corey Comperatore, was killed in the shooting and two other men were in critical condition, authorities said. A spokesman for Allegheny General Hospital said Sunday night that the injured were stable, although still in critical condition.
In a statement, the FBI said:
“The FBI is aware that Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, is involved in the July 13 assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania. This research remains active and ongoing, and with any “We Inspire You. “to submit photos or videos online about FBI. gov/butler or call 1-800-CALL-FBI. “
Federal investigators said the shooter did have his identity. They then analyzed his DNA to provide biometric confirmation of his identity.
Crooks from Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Pittsburgh about an hour south of Butler. The city in Allegheny County is home to about 30,000 people and has a top-rated school with about 1,300 students.
He graduated from Allegheny County Community College in May with an associate degree in engineering science, a spokesperson for the school showed CBS News. He planned to enroll at Robert Morris University in the fall, a spokesman for the Pittsburgh-area private university told CBS News on Monday, and had not yet taken categories there.
The Bethel Park School District showed CBS Pittsburgh station KDKA that Crooks is a 2022 graduate of Bethel Park High School. School officials pledged to work with authorities to investigate the shooting and offered their condolences to those affected by the attack.
Some Bethel Park citizens recalled their interactions with the shooter and his circle of family in interviews with CBS News Pittsburgh after the shooting.
“I had a really nice verbal exchange with them,” said Alleghany County Councilman Dan Grzybek, who lives down the street as the shooter and visited the space while campaigning. “I felt like they were great people. ”
Grzybek said he feared the shooter’s movements would “lead to political violence. ”
Former school classmate Jameson Myers, a member of the school’s varsity rifle team, told CBS News that Crooks tried out for the team as a freshman but didn’t make the junior varsity team and didn’t return for see the team in the coming years. . .
He called Crooks “a great kid who never spoke ill of anyone” and said, “I never thought he was capable of anything I had seen him do in the last few days. “
Classmate Summer Barkley told CBS Pittsburgh reporter Megan Schiller that although Crooks was not popular, he still had an organization of friends and was an intelligent student who was well-liked by teachers. She said she didn’t see any red flags that would lead her to do something like that.
Mark Sigafoos, who graduated from Crooks and sat next to him in class, told CBS News that while it was imaginable that Crooks was bullied at school, he never personally saw it happen. Array Sigafoos described him as smart, friendly, and constantly worried during class, “definitely nerdy, for sure,” but said that he “never let on that he was scary or that he liked shooter school. “
“It looked like I had killed a fly,” he said.
Another classmate, Jason Koehler, had a somewhat different opinion and told Schiller that Crooks was a loner who was constantly bullied for his appearance and wore camouflage/hunting suits in class. He said Crooks sits alone in the cafeteria before class. He also said Crooks was very aware of COVID and wore a surgical mask long after it was needed.
Crooks also worked at Bethel Park’s Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Center as a nutritional assistant, according to the facility’s administrator. The University of Pittsburgh showed Monday that Crooks had been admitted for the fall semester to examine mechanical engineering, but according to a report from the school, in March he informed the university that he had made the decision not to attend.
Crooks had also been a member of a nearby shooting club for at least a year. Bill Sellitto, president of the Clairton Sportsmen’s Club in Clairton, Pennsylvania, told CBS News that Crooks is a member.
“We can verify that Mr. Crooks is a member of the Clairton Sportsmen’s Club. Beyond that, the club is not in a position to comment further on this matter in light of ongoing police investigations,” Sellitto said in a statement. The Club totally condemns the senseless act of violence that occurred yesterday. “
A law enforcement source said that at the time of the shooting, the shooter was wearing a shirt that said “DemolitionRanch,” a popular gun-related YouTube channel with more than 11 million subscribers.
The federal government is still investigating what may have prompted the shooter to fire, but so far they say it appears he acted alone.
The FBI is investigating whether the shooter “was motivated by violent extremist ideology or had ties to other conspirators or co-conspirators,” according to an FBI and Department of Homeland Security bulletin sent to authorities Monday and received via CBS. News.
“We don’t have a known motive lately,” Kevin Rojek, special agent with the FBI in Pittsburgh, said at a news conference Saturday night, and President Biden said the shooter’s motives were still unclear in an Oval Office speech the following year. night.
“There is no position in the United States for this kind of violence, for any kind of violence. Punto. No there are exceptions. We cannot allow this violence to be normalized,” Mr. Sánchez Biden said. “The political rhetoric in this country has inflamed a lot. “We all have a duty to do so. “
A law enforcement official said Sunday morning that no connection to foreign terrorism was known at the time and that the suspect was not on law enforcement’s radar.
There is also no indication that Crooks ever had any connection to a wing of the military, he showed CBS News.
The political leanings of the criminals were not immediately clear. He registered as a Republican voter in Pennsylvania, but Federal Election Commission records show he donated $15 to a Democratic-aligned group.
An FBI official said the shooter’s family members are cooperating with investigators.
FBI officials told reporters at a news conference Sunday afternoon that uncovering the reason is the main focus of the agency’s investigation. Officials also said there was no indication Crooks had intellectual aptitude issues.
The scammers had a presence on social media, FBI officials said Sunday. Officers are checking his messages and emails, but they haven’t discovered anything that shows a reason or anything threatening.
In a statement released Monday, the FBI showed that it was able to access the shooter’s phone and continue analyzing his electronic devices. Sources told CBS News that the phone has so far provided no insight into his ideals or a possible motive.
Meanwhile, the public sent more than 2,000 pieces of data to the FBI for review.
The shooter was armed with an AR-type semiautomatic rifle, several police resources said. He had purchased a box of ammunition containing 50 bullets on the day of the shooting, a law enforcement source told CBS News on Monday.
Law enforcement resources told CBS News that the gun was purchased legally in 2013 and was recorded on the call from the shooter’s father, Matthew Crooks.
Investigators discovered three suspected improvised explosive devices, according to an FBI/DHS bulletin. Two were discovered in the shooter’s car and in his home.
A source said Tuesday that the government discovered crude bomb-making materials in the shooter’s home and his vehicle, which were being analyzed by the FBI.
Trump said in a social media post that a bullet went through the top of his right ear. He tested at a local hospital before leaving the domain under Secret Service cover and flying to New Jersey on Saturday night. His son, Eric Trump, told CBS News on Wednesday that his father had no stitches, but had a “nice superficial wound. “
Trump’s Secret Service gained more resources that are part of the protocol for the potential candidate because of his extensive campaign, which includes more personnel, countersnipers, drones and robot dogs, a law enforcement official said. Four countersnipers were at the scene Saturday, the official said. At least a dozen more police officers and sheriff’s deputies were helping the Secret Service and Pennsylvania State Police provide security for the gathering, the Associated Press reported.
In addition, Trump’s teleprompter and the flag and podium signs are made of steel, the law enforcement official said.
On a Sunday morning, United States Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said the company had “recently added resources and protective features to the former president’s security services” and said any suggestion that they had rejected a request for increased security “is surely false. ”
“American Secrets takes risks seriously and takes appropriate actions based on those risks,” he said. “U. S. intelligence agencies constantly assess and respond to the highly dynamic risk environment in the exercise of their responsibilities. “
Cellphone video recorded at the rally shows attendees pointing at the shooter and trying to tell the government he was there. The video was taken two minutes before the shooter shot Trump. People were seen fleeing the domain less than 15 seconds before shots were fired. Moments later, other people in the crowd start yelling that a guy on the roof has a gun.
A man at the rally said that shortly after Trump began speaking, he saw a “bear crawling” guy up a building.
“We’re pointing to the guy,” said the witness, named Greg. “He had a gun; you might literally see him with a gun. “He told the BBC that he and others reported him to police and United States Secret Service agents. He estimated that the guy on the roof was “three or 4 minutes” before the shots were heard.
Other witnesses told CBS Pittsburgh station KDKA that they also saw the shooter and tried to alert police before the shooting.
Details continued to emerge Tuesday about the series of occasions leading up to the shooting. In addition to the ammunition he purchased, the shooter bought a ladder at Home Depot ahead of Saturday’s rally, two law enforcement sources told CBS News, after CNN first reported it. Home Depot condemned the violence in a statement.
It’s unclear whether the gunman had brought the ladder to the Trump event, where it ultimately ended up on the roof of a building about 410 feet from the main level and just outside the barriers of a security perimeter established on the property, according to police. . Sources and video analyzed via CBS News.
In addition to witnesses who recalled seeing the shooter, several law enforcement officers were aware of his presence on the roof just before the shooting.
Three snipers from local tactical groups were deployed to assist Secret Service agents at the rally and were stationed inside the structure the gunman used in the attack, a local law enforcement official with direct knowledge of the events told CBS News. The plan called for them to park indoors to face the crowd and watch the crowd through the windows. Local media outlet BeaverCountain. com first reported details about the three snipers.
One of the snipers saw the gunman outside the building, on the roof and watching the construction before disappearing, according to the officer who spoke to CBS News. The sniper saw the shooter as he walked back to the construction, sat down and looked at his phone.
That’s when one of the snipers took a photo of the shooter and then saw the gunman through a rangefinder minutes before attempting to assassinate the former president, the president said. ‘official. The sniper immediately radioed command post and attempted to send the photo he had taken of the shooter up the chain of command.
Meanwhile, a local police officer climbed onto the roof of the building via another officer to check the scene, after receiving reports from passersby who saw the shooter, the Butler County sheriff told CBS News Pittsburgh. The police officer saw the shooter, who pointed his rifle at him. The officer then let him through and he fell from the roof, the sheriff said.
At that point, the gunman turned around and fired between six and eight shots.
-Jessica Kegu, Clare Hymes, Robert Legare, Pat Milton, Andres Triay, Megan Schiller, Anna Schecter, Nicole Sganga, Adam Yamaguchi and others CBS News contributed to this report.