In Bethel Park, where the man who is suspected of opening fire at a Donald Trump campaign rally on Saturday lived with his mother and sister, the houses are small and built of brick, Walmart and Target form central social hubs, and moms watch over their children at a junior league baseball park next to a tributary of the Allegheny River.
The attempted assassination of the Republican former president just 45 miles north has put a focus on Bethel Park, as investigators attempt to establish the motivations of the 20-year-old shooter.
Authorities on Sunday identified the suspect as Thomas Matthew Crooks. Officials said they believe Crooks acted alone. But so far, they have not been able to uncover a motivation that drove the young man to unleash a hail of bullets at Trump, wounding the former president and killing a former fire chief who was shielding his daughters.
The FBI said it would continue to investigate the attack as an attempted assassination and an act of domestic terrorism.
“The information that we have indicates that the shooter acted alone,” said Kevin Rojek, supervisory special agent in charge of the FBI’s Pittsburgh field office. “At present, we have not identified an ideology associated with the subject, but I want to remind everyone that we’re still very early in this investigation.”
The FBI said Crook had not been on their radar. Since his identification, a fragmentary portrait has emerged, almost by virtue of its omissions. He was employed as a dietary aide at Bethel Park Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. The nursing home’s administrator Marcie Grimm said Crooks “performed his job without concern and his background check was clean”.
Nor have there been significant clues found in his political affiliations. He had registered Republican but had also donated $15 to the liberal ActBlue political action committee on Joe Biden’s inauguration day. He had no past criminal cases against him, according to public court records.
Claire, a young woman who had known Crooks through his elder sister and who did not provide a last name, said she could not quite believe the boy she had once knew had attempted to assassinate a US president.
“He’s so young to want to go do that,” she said.
She said Crooks had had a difficult time socially. “He wasn’t the most attractive-looking and I don’t think he did sports that can add appeal,’” she said.
Former classmates who spoke to other news outlets filled in other memories. Some described Crooks as smart and shy. Others spoke of a long history of being bullied. An unnamed former classmate told the New York Post that Crooks was “a loner”. He said: “He probably had a friend group, but not many friends.”
Jameson Myers said that Crooks had tried out for the school rifle team but had not made the roster. “He didn’t just not make the team, he was asked not to come back because how bad of a shot he was, it was considered, like, dangerous,” Myers told ABC News. Jameson Murphy told the Post that Crooks was “a comically bad shot”.
Max R Smith said to the Philadelphia Inquirer that Crooks “definitely was conservative”. “It makes me wonder why he would carry out an assassination attempt on the conservative candidate,” Smith said.
With a nation on edge, establishing Crook’s motives is seen as a key to unlocking larger issues of deep political discord.
“We’re looking into his background, his day-to-day activities, any writings and social media posts that might help us identify what led to this shooting,”, the FBI’s Rojek said. “We have not seen anything threatening at this time”.
