As questions swirl about the would-be assassin who shot former President Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania campaign rally on Saturday, the shooter’s family is also struggling to make sense of what happened.
The FBI identified the gunman as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, who lived with his parents in the Pittsburgh suburb of Bethel Park. Crooks, who was perched on a nearby rooftop, was shot dead by the Secret Service shortly after bloodying Trump’s ear with a round investigators believe came from an AR-15 assault-style rifle found at the scene.
Reached by phone on Sunday morning, Crooks’ uncle, Mark Crooks, said he was inundated with calls following his nephew’s attempt on Trump’s life, which was, “of course,” a tremendous shock, he told The Independent. He said he had “no idea” what might have motivated the shooting, and is just trying to process the news.
“I don’t know what to say,” he conceded.
The 68-year-old lives in Allison Park, Pennsylvania, about 20 miles from Crooks’ hometown of Bethel Park, but said he hadn’t had any contact with Crooks “in years.”
“I haven’t seen the kid since he was little,” Mark Crooks said. “He never wanted to bother [with maintaining a relationship], so we don’t see him.”
Crooks’ parents, Matthew and Mary Crooks, née Frizzi, are certified behavioral health counselors, according to state licensing records. Neither responded on Sunday to multiple requests for comment from The Independent.
In a brief call with CNN on Saturday night, Matthew Crooks, 53, said he was attempting to figure out “what the hell is going on,” and that he needed to “wait until I talk to law enforcement” before saying anything further.
According to Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi, Crooks squeezed off “multiple shots” before agents “neutralized” him. One rally attendee was killed, and two others were critically injured, Guglielmi said. Crooks was not an attendee at the rally, according to authorities.
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Crooks, who was clad in gray camouflage, had explosives in his car, according to unidentified law enforcement officials cited by The Wall Street Journal.
The assault rifle police recovered from Crooks’ position atop of a manufacturing plant just north of the grounds of the Butler Farm Show, where Trump was speaking to a crowd of supporters, had been purchased legally by Crooks’ father, sources told ABC News.
When law enforcement searched Crooks’ body, they found he had no ID on him, FBI Special Agent in Charge Kevin Rojek of the bureau’s Pittsburgh Field Office said at a press conference on Saturday night. A DNA analysis was then performed, which confirmed his identity, Rojek said.
Trump was taken to a local hospital and released, then flew to New Jersey on his private jet, surrounded by heavily armed Secret Service agents.
“When I watched that violent bullet strike my husband, Donald, I realized my life, and Barron’s life, were on the brink of devastating change,” former First Lady Melania Trump said in a statement issued early Sunday. “I am grateful to the brave secret service agents and law enforcement officials who risked their lives to protect my husband.”
After the attempt on Trump’s life, President Biden said, “There’s no place in America for this type of violence. It’s sick. It’s sick.”