Everything about Thomas Matthew Crooks remains a mystery. The 20-year-old West Pennsylvania native who unsuccessfully attempted to assassinate President Trump remains a conundrum even as FBI analysts at Quantico, VA, dig through the contents of his phone.
Unlike the Nashville Shooter or so many others perpetrators of political violence, he left no manifesto, suicide note, or statement of any kind.
Crooks used the Democrat donor platform ActBlue to contribute $15 to the Progressive Turnout Project, a left-wing voter turnout PAC. While many have pointed to the fact that Crooks was a registered Republican, voter registration can be a tricky thing to decipher. Democrat backed groups spent two years encouraging Democrat voters to register as Republicans in order to vote against Trump in the GOP Primary.
Progressive Turnout Project did release a statement condemning the attack, however on the morning of the shooting they posted a tweet calling Trump a threat who would destroy democracy and others claiming he would become a dictator.
Crooks’ father is a libertarian and his mother a democrat, but political data viewed both as pro-Second Amendment.
At school, Crooks seems to have been a misfit. Classmates described him as having “no facial expression,” at school and “just looking a little different.” Some reports say he was bullied and nicknamed “the school shooter,” but others say those stories are embellished.
Explosive material was found in Crook’s car and home but so far no plans for using it have emerged.
When he tried to join the Bethel Park High School rifle team, he was rejected for “off-color” jokes and for being a “comically bad shot.”
The picture of the would-be assassin remains complex and often contradictory as authorities try to piece together how the small-town loner turned into the name dominating the news.
