After conducting more than 200 interviews and combing through his phone and internet search history, federal investigators have pieced together an early portrait of the man who tried to assassinate former President Donald Trump: Thomas Matthew Crooks was a smart, unassuming loner who showed an interest in guns and was far from outspoken about politics.
But the emerging profile of Crooks nearly a week after the shooting has left authorities puzzled about the motive for his assault and has led investigators to speculate that his intentions may have been less politically motivated and more about attacking the most high-profile target near him.
The investigation remains in its early stages, authorities warn. Yet in some ways, Crooks appears similar to dozens of other young men who have wreaked havoc across the country with high-powered assault rifles in recent years.
He had few close friends, used to shoot at a local shooting range and did not appear to hold strongly held views that would suggest a politically motivated killing, according to interviews with CNN with law enforcement officials and a review of notes from a congressional briefing.
In addition to the former president, Crooks had researched President Joe Biden online and had photos on his phone of other prominent figures from both parties.
He researched the location of Trump’s rally as well as the upcoming Democratic National Convention, the briefing notes say, and discovered that Trump planned to appear just an hour’s drive from his home in the Pittsburgh suburbs.
That suggests Crooks may have been seeking to carry out a high-profile shooting, and the proximity and timing of the Trump event offered the most accessible opportunity, federal officials speculated.
“Although he did not hit his primary target, the shooter was successful in many ways because he came closer to doing something no one has done in decades,” a federal official told CNN referring to the assassination of a presidential candidate.
It remains unclear whether Crooks intended to carry out a much larger attack and started with Trump because that was the way to gain more notoriety.
Crooks also sought information about another recent mass shooter who shot and killed four classmates at a Michigan high school in 2021.
Internet searches about that shooter, Ethan Crumbley, are consistent with what law enforcement officials have seen in other mass shooters who search for people they want to emulate, in part as a way to form their own idea of how to do something bigger, the federal official said.
But there are also significant differences between Crooks’ behavior and that of a typical mass shooter. On the day of the attack, Crooks appeared to have targeted Trump specifically — not the crowds in an attempt to kill as many people as possible.
Although he had an improvised explosive device in the trunk of his car, it is unclear whether he planned to detonate it to kill people or as a distraction.
Kathleen Puckett, a former FBI behavioral analyst who worked on the case of “Unabomber” Ted Kaczynski, said Crooks also appeared to have less firepower than many mass shooters, who often carry multiple weapons and wear bulletproof vests.
“It didn’t seem to me like he was ready for an attack,” Puckett said, noting the limits of publicly available information. “It seemed to me like he was taking a window where he saw a vulnerability where he felt he was not being watched to the point where he could get some critical shots in.”
Furthermore, unlike other mass shooters who often leave behind writings to explain their attacks, authorities have so far recovered few clues, either from Crooks’ room or online.
That’s frustrating experts trying to understand his mindset — and drawing comparisons to Stephen Paddock, the gunman who killed 60 people in Las Vegas in 2017. Nearly seven years after America’s deadliest mass shooting, investigators still don’t know why Paddock pulled the trigger.
Like the Las Vegas massacre, “this may be a situation where the more we know, the less we understand about the exact motive,” said Juliette Kayyem, a former assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security and a national security analyst at CNN .
Crooks’ family members told investigators that he rarely discussed politics openly, and evidence found at his residence did not reveal any further evidence about his political values or ideologies, according to a readout shared with the CNN which reveals a plan that FBI and U.S. Secret Service officials presented to lawmakers on Wednesday.
Mary Ellen O’Toole, a former FBI profiler, said that based on the evidence gathered so far, she thought the Trump rally was “very appealing” to Crooks, in part because “it happened in his backyard.”
“It gave him incredible attention and catapulted him to a point where I think that’s why he chose this,” she speculated.
Still, Puckett called lone offenders — who remain invisible before attacks — “one of the thorniest problems” for law enforcement and cautioned against rushing to find simple answers about Crooks’ motives.
“Whatever his story is, it’s not going to be simplistic, I don’t think — it’s going to be more complicated,” Puckett said. “You don’t want the simplistic version. You want every detail you can find.”
(Scott Glover, Allison Gordon and Holmes Lybrand, from CNN contributed to this report)
Source: CNN Brasil
Bruce Belcher is a seasoned author with over 5 years of experience in world news. He writes for online news websites and provides in-depth analysis on the world stock market. Bruce is known for his insightful perspectives and commitment to keeping the public informed.
