Who Is Thomas Matthew Crooks? Unpacking the Trump Rally Shooter’s Identity

Authorities have identified the gunman involved in the shooting at former US President Donald Trump’s rally on Saturday as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks. He was killed at the scene by Secret Service agents.

The FBI named Crooks in a statement early Sunday morning, identifying him as a resident of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, which is about 35 miles south of Butler, where the rally took place.

According to local media reports and a commencement video, Crooks graduated from Bethel Park High School in 2022.

Public records show that Crooks was registered to vote as a Republican in Pennsylvania, with an address in Bethel Park that law enforcement searched Saturday night. This year’s presidential election would have been the first in which he was eligible to vote.

Federal Election Commission records indicate that someone named Thomas Crooks, with the same address, donated $15 to a Democratic-aligned political action committee called the Progressive Turnout Project in January 2021.

When contacted by CNN late Saturday night, Crooks’ father, Matthew Crooks, expressed confusion and said he would wait to speak with law enforcement before commenting further about his son.