By Adetokunbo FAKEYE
The Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI, has confirmed the name of the alleged gunman as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks.
In a statement, the FBI said: “The FBI has identified Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, as the subject involved in the assassination attempt of former president Donald Trump on July 13, in Butler, Pennsylvania.
“This remains an active and ongoing investigation, and anyone with information that may assist with the investigation is encouraged to submit photos or videos online at FBI.gov/butler or call 1-800-CALL-FBI”.
The rally took place in Butler, a city roughly an hour’s drive north of Pittsburgh. Bethel Park, where the suspect reportedly resided, is an affluent, predominantly white suburb in southern Pittsburgh.
According to London Evening Standard report, Pennsylvania voter records reveal that Crooks was registered as a Republican. However, federal campaign finance reports paint a more complex picture.
It stated further that documents show Crooks made a $15 donation to a progressive political action committee on 20 January 2021 – the day of President Joe Biden’s inauguration.
This conflicting information has raised questions about the suspect’s political leanings and motivations behind the attack at the Trump rally.
A man who was attending the rally says he alerted Secret Service agents to a gunman on a nearby roof minutes before shots were fired at the former president.
The witness, identified only as Greg, expressed disbelief at the apparent lack of action from security personnel. He recounted: “I’m thinking to myself, why is Trump still speaking, why have they not pulled him off the stage? The next thing you know, five shots ring out”.
Greg, a Trump supporter, described seeing the shooter prepare for the assassination attempt. He claimed other attendees also spotted the man on the roof for several minutes without intervention from law enforcement.
“We noticed a guy crawling, you know army, bear crawling up the roof of the building 50ft away from us,” Greg said. “We are standing there pointing at the guy crawling up the roof, he had a rifle, we could clearly see he had a rifle.”
He added: “We are pointing at him, the police are down there running around on the ground. We are like hey man there is guy on the roof with a rifle – and the police are like ‘hey what? you know’, they didn’t know what was going on.”
Greg insisted he was “100 per cent” certain the shots came from the man on the roof. He also claimed to have witnessed Secret Service agents “blow his head off” after the gunman opened fire.
Investigators have recovered an AR-style rifle at the scene, according to a law enforcement source quoted by the Associated Press (AP).
The AP reportedly geolocated a social media video showing a motionless body on the roof of AGR International, a manufacturing plant near the Trump rally site.
AP journalist Scott Bauer said on X: “The roof was less than 165 yards from where Trump was speaking, a distance from which a decent marksman could reasonably hit a human-sized target.”
President Joe Biden confirmed he had been briefed on the incident, saying: “I’m grateful to hear that he’s safe and doing well. I’m praying for him and his family and for all those who were at the rally, as we await further information”.
Biden reportedly spoke with Trump on Saturday night. In a televised address, the President called for unity against political violence: “The bottom line is, the Trump rally … should have been able to be conducted peacefully without any problem.
“But the idea … that there’s political violence … in America like this is just unheard of. It’s just not appropriate. Everybody must condemn it”.
Source: London Evening Standard
