Trump rally shooter left few clues, baffling classmates and family as authorities search for motive
BETHEL PARK, Pa. — Authorities said Monday that they had accessed the phone of the
person who tried to assassinate former President Donald Trump and had completed searches of his car and his family’s home in suburban Pittsburgh as ongoing efforts to understand the shooter’s motives have so far come up empty.
The FBI said its investigation remains in the “early stages,” but the immediate lack of a clear motive for Saturday’s shooting at a Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, has only deepened the mystery around the gunman, Thomas Matthew Crooks, more than 24 hours after authorities released his name. Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, was whisked off the stage during the shooting, which killed a former fire chief and injured two other people.
Gregg McCrary, a former FBI profiler who spent more than 25 years with the bureau, first as a field agent and then in the behavioral science unit, said the lack of information about Crooks, 20, poses a challenge for law enforcement.
“This guy is one of these almost invisible people that are out there,” he said. “They’re not on social media. They’re not screaming or yelling about this or that. They’re ruminating about it internally — whatever it might be. And they just decide to do this, which scares the hell out of all of us in law enforcement.”
“Some people say it’s like looking for a needle in a haystack,” he added. “That’s not really it. A better way to think about it is to try and predict which piece of hay is going to become a needle.”
Senior law enforcement officials offered new details stemming from the investigation Monday:
- More than a dozen guns were found in a search of the family’s home in Bethel Park, four senior officials said.
- After reports of a shooting at Trump’s rally emerged, the shooter’s father, Matthew Crooks, called police to say he was worried that his son and his AR rifle were missing, and police went to the home after the call, three senior officials said.
- Authorities are looking into whether some of the ammunition in the shooting was bought in the days before and whether some of the bullets were picked up at a store and taken to the home or were delivered, a senior official said. One of the stores the FBI is investigating is Allegheny Arms and Gun Works in Bethel Park, a six-minute drive from the shooter’s home.
- FBI technical specialists were unable to ascertain a motive after a preliminary analysis of the gunman’s phone, according to a senior official. Officials said they are analyzing other electronic devices.
Few details about the shooter’s background have been uncovered. Public records show that he was a registered Republican who once donated to a progressive voting effort, but even people who knew him have offered little insight. Almost nothing has been found in the way of an online footprint, and people who spoke with authorities told NBC News that they had little to say about him.
Mark Crooks, the shooter’s uncle, said Monday that he hadn’t spoken to his nephew or Matthew, his brother, since 2019, when their father died. He told NBC News from his home in suburban Pittsburgh that he tried to reach out to his brother after his nephew was identified as the shooter but has received no response.
He described his brother as private and added that he hasn’t seen his nephew in several years. He said he didn’t know about his political leanings or what would have motivated him to try to assassinate Trump.
Crooks said that his nephew’s actions were unforgivable and that he feels terrible for the victims.
“You know what, you can’t forgive what he did,” he said. “Look at what he did. He shot at everybody. He killed one guy and wounded a couple more.”
Forrest Works, who lives directly across the street from the shooter’s home, said he was trying to come to terms with the assassination attempt.
“I saw him walking around, but I never saw anything suspicious,” said Works, 30. “I haven’t processed the shooting yet. It’s wild.”
Authorities said Crooks used a semiautomatic rifle, firing at least seven shots, one of which killed Corey Comperatore, 50, a former fire chief from Butler County who died shielding his family.
Crooks graduated from Bethel Park High School in 2022, earned an associate’s degree in engineering science from the Community College of Allegheny County in May and was working as a dietary aide at the Bethel Park Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Center.Former classmates who have spoken about him didn’t seem to know him very well. He didn’t appear in any club or sports activities in his high school yearbooks, and he wasn’t photographed in his junior and senior years.
Jason Kohler, who attended high school with Crooks, said that he remembered him sitting alone at lunch and that he kept to himself. He said some students would make fun of Crooks, but others have disputed that he was the target of bullies.
“Everyone was just in complete shock,” Kohler said Monday after he learned the shooter’s identity.
Sarah D’Angelo, who lived on the same street as Crooks and graduated from high school with him, echoed that it was “entirely unexpected” that a former classmate could have orchestrated the shooting. She said Crooks went by “Tom” or “Tommy.”
“All I can say is the community is all very close given how great of a school district we have; very family orientated and true Americans,” D’Angelo said in a text message.
A former classmate who grew up with Crooks and attended school with him from the fourth to ninth grades remembered playing basketball with him as a youth and thought of him as a quiet kid who kept to himself.
“It’s terrible what he did. However, I never really expected it from the person that I knew,” the former classmate said. “I’m sure he changed drastically in high school as most of us do.”
On Monday afternoon, some people who live near the shooter’s residence were just returning home after having been abruptly evacuated by federal agents over the weekend.
A few sat on their porches and in front of their lawns and even looked through windows as federal agents questioned residents.
“The state police knocked on my door and told me I was being evacuated,” said neighbor Kelly Little, 38, who usually noticed Crooks walking through the neighborhood every couple of days.
The two would exchange small greetings, but nothing more.
The Crooks family home was quiet Monday with a blue truck and a red car parked in the driveway.
Little said FBI agents asked her whether she knew or ever had any conversations with Crooks. She told them no.
The FBI believes the shooter acted alone. But with no overt social media presence or known threats, understanding why becomes even more difficult, said McCrary, the FBI profiler.
“We may never know. The problem is we’re looking for some rational explanation for irrational behavior,” he said. “And sometimes there is no rational explanation.”
