It’s been five days since Thomas Crooks allegedly fired a rifle at former President and presidential candidate Donald Trump and, thus far, no one has publicly identified a motive for the act that investigators say he committed.
Many of the people who would be in the best position to understand what might have happened — his family, close friends and coworkers — haven’t made detailed public statements about what they knew about him. The FBI says it is still analyzing his phone and other evidence collected at the shooting scene and his home.
Still, some reports about who Crooks was in life appear to have a more solid footing than others.
WESA analyzed the public statements of two dozen people who knew Crooks and have spoken in media reports — the majority of whom were classmates of Crooks at Bethel Park High School. The list also includes a handful of neighbors and people at the college he attended. While most of these people say they didn’t know him well, a portrait of how he appeared to the people with whom he had small interactions through his days is becoming more clear.
Crooks, 20, was most commonly described as smart, quiet and “normal”, according to between seven and nine people. On the other end of the spectrum, a few classmates have described him in ways for which little evidence exists to support: Only one person described him as “odd,” one person described him as being interested in the military and one called him arrogant.
And there appears to be little evidence that he was bullied — one person who spoke to the media this week recalled him being bullied, yet three people specifically said they remember he was not bullied.
The most common descriptor was “smart” or “intelligent” — mentioned nine times. Three people even called him “nerdy.” A few said he took advanced classes, and officials confirmed that Crooks won a small scholarship in high school. He graduated from the Community College of Allegheny County with an associate degree in engineering science this spring and had been admitted to both the University of Pittsburgh and Robert Morris University for the fall.
A number of people also described him as “kind.” A neighbor said he would smile when he passed her by on the street. One classmate said he didn’t seem like he would even hurt a fly.
There is also some evidence that he may have held conservative beliefs. One high school classmate remembers him standing alone to argue for conservative views in a social studies class. Another classmate said she believed he and his friends wore Trump shirts when Trump was running for office. In total, four people said they believed he had conservative beliefs, while none said they believed he was liberal or espoused some other ideology. Two people said they had never heard him talk about politics. One classmate said Crooks told him that he hated all the presidential candidates in 2016.
The evidence is mixed about his social life. While three different people described him as a loner, five other people said he had a small group of friends, including a former high school counselor who said he hung out with about five other students.
Brayden Denson said he attended the Bethel Park School District from sixth grade until his graduation two years ago and that he shared one class with Crooks, a woodshop class. Denson said he was also quiet in school but that he ran with a different group of friends than Crooks. Crooks was involved in advanced classes and seemed smart, Denson said, while Denson himself said he wasn't at school much.
"He did have friends," Denson said.
Two different students said they remembered Crooks trying out for the rifle team, although an official for the Bethel Park School District said the coach for the team doesn’t remember him trying out and there is no official record of Crooks doing so. But the students who spoke about Crooks trying out said their memory is vivid because he was a bad shot and seemed embarrassed by how he had done.
Three people said he was interested in computers or video games, and three people said they remembered him wearing hunting gear.
Of the people who have spoken publicly, few said they had much personal interaction with him. A former guidance counselor said he had a friendly relationship with Crooks and spoke to him frequently during lunch. Another student said they had been friends in elementary school but were not close in high school. A neighbor across the street and a girl who rode the bus with him said they didn’t know him well.
An analysis of Crooks’ high school yearbook appeared to show that he wasn’t involved in any extracurricular activities. His picture appears in only the freshman and sophomore yearbooks. His sister, who was two years older, worked for the yearbook for at least one year and worked in the guidance counselor’s office.
The people who have spoken out about Crooks largely have not interacted with him for more than two years since he graduated from high school. Two people from CCAC, one staff member and one student, said they knew him. The staff member gave an account consistent with how Crooks was described in high school: smart and nice. The college classmate said that they attended class on Zoom together, and Crooks didn’t turn on his camera.
‘Not what we’re about’
The FBI said it recovered an AR-style rifle near Crooks' body: The rifle had been purchased legally by Crooks’ father. The FBI found around 20 guns that were registered to Crooks’ father in their home. The FBI also said it found rudimentary explosive devices in Crooks’ car and the home he shared with his parents, as well as a transmitter that could have set them off with Crooks on the roof of the building where, investigators say, he shot at Trump during a campaign rally Saturday.
Crooks' body was also found wearing a shirt bearing the logo of Demolition Ranch, a YouTube channel for gun enthusiasts with 11 million subscribers.
Mark Carricker, the owner of the channel, said in a video posted Monday that Crooks had no interaction with the channel other than ordering the shirt online. Demolition Ranch avoids the topic of politics or violence, he said.
"We do not talk about politics, we keep politics out of it," he said in the video. "I don't want any violence or hate around me. … It’s not what we stand for, and it will never be what we stand for.”
Carricker said he ships his shirts all over the country, and that he runs several YouTube channels. He expressed sympathy for victims of the shooting and said “when you're watching a CNN article and it says three names — the shooter’s, Trump’s, and mine — that was not on my 2024 Bingo card.”
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported Crooks purchased 50 rounds of ammunition at Allegheny Arms and Gun Works in Bethel Park hours before Trump's rally in Butler County. Crooks also bought a ladder from Home Depot.
And for at least the past year, Crooks had a membership to the Clairton Sportsmen's Club, about a 25-minute drive from his home in Bethel Park, and about a mile away from the CCAC South campus he attended. Crooks attended the club the day before the shooting, according to The Associated Press.
The club boasts more than 2,000 members, according to its website, and it offers a variety of food events and shooting opportunities that include a 200-yard rifle range. The rules listed on its website require members to sign in every time they come to shoot.
A WESA reporter was met near the entrance to the club by a person who declined to be named: When the reporter identified himself, the man said that "this is not what we're about" and directed questions to lawyer Rob S Bootay III. A secretary for Bootay said she would send a statement but did not do so. Bootay has elsewhere condemned Crooks' "senseless act of violence."
Bill Sellitto, the president of the club, referred to questions about Crooks to his attorney. Sellitto described the club this way: "We have a fairly big clubhouse, we have a kitchen, we are open periodically during the week. We do an awful lot of clay target shooting."
