In 2022, a smiling Thomas Crooks walked up on stage at his school graduation. He was described as a bright but quiet student. Crooks got his high school diploma in 2022 from Bethel Park High School and received a $500 ‘star award’ from the National Math and Science Initiative, according to a local newspaper report. No one could have imagined that two years later, he would take an air rifle to a Trump rally and try to assassinate the former President.
The FBI is investigating it as a case of domestic terrorism and an assassination attempt. The weapon the 20 year old used was an AR-15 semi-automatic air rifle that the FBI believes is licensed to his father. Thomas Crooks worked as a nursing home aide near his home in Pennsylvania where his background check had come up clean. The FBI says his social media profile and posts show no provocative messages or anything that could have been a red flag.
His school counsellor said there was nothing to suggest that he was political. High School counsellor Jim Knapp described him as someone who was ‘as quiet as a churchmouse’. Crooks was a registered Republican who would have been eligible to cast his first presidential vote in the November 5 election. Public records show his father is a registered Republican and his mother a registered Democrat, and that as a 17-year-old Crooks made a $15 donation to a Democratic Party cause.
President Biden addressed the nation in the aftermath of the shooting. “We do not know the motive of the shooter yet, we don’t know his opinions or affiliations, we don’t know whether he got help or support or if he communicated with anyone else. Law enforcement professionals, as I speak, are investigating those questions,” he said. What then could have triggered the assassination attempt? And could what happened to him during his school years provide a clue? Jason Kohler, one of his classmates from school, told Reuters, Crooks was bullied. “I didn’t have any interaction with him, but he was like a kid that was always alone. He was always bullied. Every day. He was just an outcast. Like you could look at him and you would be like ‘something’s a little off.’ That’s how I could describe it.”
Crooks reportedly often wore hunting pants to school and was part of a local shooting club but gun culture is common in this part of the U.S. and there are many gun clubs in the area. Some at the club remember him as someone with a ‘comically bad shot’, who couldn’t make it to the team. Even though Crooks came within 140 metres of President Trump with an air rifle, investigators are no closer to finding out his motive behind an act that’s shocked America and the world.
