Police vehicles surround the residence of Thomas Matthew Crooks in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, July 14, 2024
Getty Images / Kyle Mazza
The young gunman who almost killed the former president was reportedly bullied in high school
The FBI has identified former US President Donald Trump’s would-be assassin as a 20-year-old man named Thomas Matthew Crooks. Much about Crooks, including his political leanings and motive, remains unclear.
Trump narrowly avoided death at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, when an assassin’s bullet apparently clipped his ear as it whizzed past his head. Firing from a rooftop around 500 feet (150 meters) from the stage, the gunman killed one spectator at the rally and wounded two others before he was shot dead by Secret Service snipers stationed on a different rooftop.
In a statement released on Saturday night, the FBI said that it had “identified Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, as the subject involved in the assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump.” As the agency appealed for anyone with information to submit photos and videos of the incident, details of Crooks’ life began to emerge in the press.