The FBI has identified the gunman who wounded former president Donald Trump as Thomas Matthew Crooks, a 20-year-old man from Bethel Park, Penn.
The shooting, which bloodied Trump as he spoke at a political rally in Pennsylvania Saturday, left one attendee dead and two others critically wounded.
“This evening we had what we’re calling an assassination attempt against our former president, Donald Trump,” Kevin Rojek, the special agent in charge of the FBI Pittsburgh field office, told reporters late Saturday night.
Crooks, who opened fire from a rooftop, was killed by Secret Service members.
AP Photo/Evan Vucci
Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump is surrounded by U.S. Secret Service agents at a campaign rally, Saturday, July 13, 2024, in Butler, Pa.
Trump said in a Truth Social post that he was “shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear.”
The Secret Service said in a statement Saturday that the shooter “fired multiple shots toward the stage from an elevated position outside the rally venue.” They recovered an AR-15 style rifle at the scene.
Crooks is listed in a Pennsylvania state voter database as a registered Republican who last voted in the November 2022 election.
Federal donor records also show a Thomas Crooks with the same address as the shooter donated $15 on Jan. 20, 2021, to ActBlue, a Democrat online fundraising platform, earmarked for the Progressive Turnout Project.
Crooks’ father, Matthew Crooks, told CNN late last night he was trying to figure out “what the hell is going on” but would “wait until I talk to law enforcement.”
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