The man who on Saturday afternoon tried to kill former President Donald Trump, the GOP’s presumed 2024 presidential candidate, is dead.
The FBI identified 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania as the would-be assassin whose bullet hit the top of Trump’s right ear as he was speaking at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Former US President Donald Trump Shot at Pennsylvania Rally
The FBI said at a news conference the shooting is under investigation as an attempted assassination.
A Secret Service sharpshooter shot and killed Crooks as he lay on a building rooftop about 400 to 500 feet (120 to 150 meters) away, holding an AR-type assault rifle pointed at the stage.
One man in the audience was killed in the shooting; two other spectators at the rally were seriously injured.
“There’s going to be a long investigation into exactly what took place and how the individual was able to get access to the location, what type of weapon he had. All that is really days, weeks, and months of investigation,” FBI special agent in charge of the Pittsburgh office Kevin Rojek told reporters at a news conference.
Although Crooks was registered as a Republican, he also donated $15 to a Democratic political action committee in 2021. This year’s presidential election would have been the first in which he could have voted.
