Trump Assassination Bid: Here’s What Shooter’s Father Said

Pennsylvania: After the assassination bid on former US President and Republican candidate Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania’s Butler on early Sunday, the FBI identified the shooter as Thomas Matthew Crooks (20), a resident of Bethel Park in Pennsylvania. Immediately after the shooting incident at the former United States President, the law enforcement agency neutralised the shooter and a probe was launched to ascertain the facts behind the attack. Meanwhile, the father of the shooter, Matthew Crooks (53), has responded to the shocking incident saying that he was trying to figure out what happened.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has initiated a detailed probe into the shooting at former US President and Republican candidate Donald Trump in Pennsylvania, as an attempted assassination of the former president and presumptive Republican nominee.

Meanwhile, talking to CNN, Thomas Matthew Crooks' father, Matthew Crooks, asserted that he was trying to figure out what happened. Crooks stated that he would wait until he spoke to the law enforcement agency before talking about his son to anyone else. He refrained from making any comments without having a true picture of the shooting incident.

Thomas Matthew Crooks Was Registered Republican

According to a local newspaper, Thomas Crooks, who the Secret Service agents killed for shooting at the former US president, had graduated in 2022 from Bethel Park High School. He received a Rs 500 ‘star award’ from the National Math and Science Initiative.

As per the state's voter records, Crooks was a registered Republican voter in Pennsylvania, but federal campaign finance reports also show he gave US Dollar 15 to a progressive political action committee on January 20, 2021, the day President Joe Biden was sworn into office.

Crooks Would Have Been First Time Voter

The upcoming November 5 election would have been the first time Crooks had been old enough to vote in a presidential race. Crooks lived about an hour away from where the shooting took place in Butler. On Sunday, the Federal Aviation Administration said it closed the airspace over Bethel Park for ‘special security reasons’.

When Crooks was 17 he made a US Dollar 15 donation to ActBlue. This political action committee raises money for left-leaning and Democratic politicians, according to a 2021 Federal Election Commission filing. The donation was earmarked for the Progressive Turnout Project, a national group that rallies Democrats to vote.

Motive Unclear: FBI

The FBI said it was working to determine a motive for the attack, in which one rally attendee died and two other spectators were critically injured. Trump was shot in the ear. The law enforcement officials said on Saturday that Crooks carried no identification to the site of the shooting and had to be identified using other methods. "We're looking at photographs right now and we're trying to run his DNA and get biometric confirmation," Kevin Rojek, FBI special agent in charge, said during a press briefing.