Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump is surrounded by U.S. Secret Service agents as he is helped off the stage at a campaign rally in Butler, Pa., Saturday, July 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
After former President Donald Trump narrowly survived an assassination attempt Saturday at a reelection campaign rally in Butler County, Pennsylvania, where one rally attendee was killed and two others were left in critical condition, the FBI has identified the shooter armed with a rifle as a 20-year-old man from Bethel Park, a Pittsburgh suburb.
State records show that Thomas Matthew Crooks was a registered as a Republican in Allegheny County, but Law&Crime can also confirm that Crooks donated $15 to the Progressive Turnout Project through ActBlue on the day Joe Biden was inaugurated as president in 2021.
Thomas Matthew Crooks was a registered Republican, according to Pennsylvania records.
As of 2021, Crooks was listed as unemployed.
Thomas Crooks’ donation to Progressive Turnout Project (FEC records)
The Pennsylvania voter information and the FEC donation data show the same Milford Drive address in Bethel Park, a street that investigators swarmed in the aftermath of the shooting on Saturday night.
Local reports say that Crooks graduated from Bethel Park High School as recently as 2022.
#BREAKING: Two of my contacts in Bethel Park just sent me two recent yearbook photos of the gunman, Thomas Crooks.
We are LIVE outside the street where he lived, as law enforcement swarms his neighborhood after evacuating those who live nearby. @KDKA pic.twitter.com/lFi1OtW5Yu
— MEGHAN SCHILLER (@MeghanKDKA) July 14, 2024
#NEW: Bethel Park School District confirms gunman Thomas Crooks graduated in 2022. Statement below 👇🏻 @KDKA pic.twitter.com/SjxqhWSPgg
— MEGHAN SCHILLER (@MeghanKDKA) July 14, 2024
KDKA’s Megan Schiller reported a statement from the Bethel Park School District confirming that Crooks graduated two years ago.
“The school district wishes to express its sincere wishes for a speedy and full recovery for Mr. Trump and for those in attendance at the Saturday event who may have been physically harmed or emotionally impacted by these tragic events,” the reported statement said. “We offer special condolences to the family of at least one attendee who was killed. Our thoughts and prayers are with you at this difficult time.”
The district also said if would “cooperate fully with the active law enforcement investigation.”
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