The FBI said it is working "tirelessly" to identify a motive behind Saturday's attempted assassination of Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania rally.
The Washington Post via Getty Images
As details emerge about the background of the man who tried to assassinate Donald Trump, his motive remains a mystery.
The shooter, who has been named Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, tried to kill Trump during a rally in Pennsylvania.
Investigators said that he fired multiple rounds from a rooftop around 150 meters away from the former president using an AR-15 rifle.
He killed one rally-goer and critically injured two others before being shot dead by a Secret Service counter-sniper, who was on another rooftop.
Trump said on Saturday that a bullet had "pierced the upper part of my right ear."
Secret Service agents rushed onto the stage to shield Trump amid gunfire. As he was led offstage, Trump was pictured raising his fist in defiance, his face streaked with blood, as he shouted: "Fight."
There remain many unanswered questions about the shooter, who one acquaintance described as a nice but shy person.
Neighbors told The Financial Times they had been shocked by the events but did not know the family or the shooter. "Nobody knows him around here," one said.
According to reports, Crooks lived with his parents in a Bethel Park suburb and worked in a local nursing home kitchen.
In 2022, he graduated from Bethel Park High School with a prize for math and science, which was also awarded to around a dozen other students, reported the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. According to voter records, he was a registered Republican, but he also donated $15 to ActBlue, a liberal group, in 2021.
Law enforcement agents told US media they're searching for evidence of what led the shooter to try to kill Trump.
The FBI did not "currently have an identified motive, although our investigators are working tirelessly to attempt to identify what that motive was," Pittsburgh Special Agent in Charge Kevin Rojek told ABC News."
Rojek said the FBI's initial investigation indicated that the shooter acted alone, and authorities have not yet "identified an ideology" related to the shooting.
"At this time, we have no indication of mental health issues," Rojek said. "Our primary focus is on the phone. We are working to get access to the phone."
The FBI told the Associated Press that investigators were trying to access Crooks' phone and that an initial examination of his communications and social media posts revealed no ideological motive.
Identifying an ideology that may have driven the shooter to attack the former president is vital to unraveling how such an incident could have taken place, quelling conspiracy theories, and preventing any further violence.
During a brief press conference from the White House, President Joe Biden said investigators had not yet determined Crooks' motive.
"I urge everyone, please: don't make assumptions about his motives or his affiliations," Biden said. "Let the FBI do their job."
Discord, the online community platform, said it'd found an old account apparently linked to the shooter, though he'd not used it to express political views, it told news outlets.
The FBI told the AP he appeared to have acted alone and had bomb-making materials in the vehicle he drove to the rally.
An ex-elementary and high school classmate of Crooks', Jameson Myers, told ABC News that the shooter didn't make the cut for the high school rifle team because of his poor marksmanship.
Classmate Max R. Smith told The Philadelphia Inquirer that the shooter had expressed conservative political views in school.
He said in mock debates at school "the majority of the class were on the liberal side, but Tom, no matter what, always stood his ground on the conservative side," Smith reportedly said.
"That's still the picture I have of him. Just standing alone on one side while the rest of the class was on the other."
High school classmate Jason Kohler, 21, told NBC News that the shooter had been a "loner" who was "bullied so much in high school."
Kohler told the outlet the shooter wore hunting outfits to school and was bullied for his attire.
"He would sit alone at lunch. He was just the outcast," Kohler said. "It's honestly kind of sad."
Other question the bullied loner narrative. Jim Knapp, who retired from his job as the school counselor at Bethel Park High School in 2022, told Reuters that Crooks had always been "quiet as a church mouse' and "respectful".
He "wasn't a needy type kid," Knapp said. "Kids weren't calling him names, kids weren't bullying him," he added
Michael Dudjak, 20, told the outfit he hadn't seen the shooter being bullied, but he was "on his own a lot."
He said the shooter hadn't expressed strong political opinions at school or been particularly active on social media.
Abdulloh Rakhmatoz, who rode a school bus with the shooter, told The Financial Times he was "very quiet but when he did talk he was nice."
"He was just really shy," Rakhmatoz told the outlet.
KDKA, a Pittsburgh CBS, reported that law enforcement was searching the shooter's family home on Sunday as the hunt for a motive continued.
