‘What the hell’: Dad stunned as ‘loner’ Trump shooter identified (2024)

More details are emerging about Thomas Matthew Crooks, the 20-year-old identified by the FBI as the man who attempted to assassinate former US President Donald Trump.

Crooks, from Bethel Park in Pennsylvania, fired at Trump at an outdoor rally in Butler, just outside Pittsburgh. One bullet struck Trump’s ear, and at least one other hit and killed a member of the crowd.

Corey Comperatore, 50, who served as the fire chief for Buffalo Township, was reportedly trying to protect his daughter from gunfire at the rally when he was shot by Crooks and killed, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro confirmed Sunday.

Crooks’ father reportedly said he is trying to figure out “what the hell is going on” as his son was named as the would-be assassin who was shot dead by the Secret Service at the rally in Pennsylvania.

Matthew Crooks wouldn’t provide details about his son and wanted to “wait until I talk to law enforcement”, before speaking out on the horrific shooting, he told CNN.

His late son was a member of the 2022 graduating class at Bethel Park High School, the school district confirmed.

Video shows the younger Crooks walking across a stage to accept his diploma.

One former classmate, who confirmed photos of Crooks, told The New York Post: “He didn’t seem like really weird or anything. I would have pegged him as a Republican.”

The classmate added: “He was more of a loner. He probably had a friend group, but not many friends.

Asked why he wasn’t in the 2022 yearbook, the classmate said: “Maybe he didn’t come back after Covid.”

‘Bad shot’: Claims about gunman at school

CBS reported Crooks was rejected from Bethel Park High School’s rifle team, with a classmate claiming he was a “bad shot”.

“He never returned to tryouts for the remainder of high school,” said the former member of the student team, who graduated high school with Crooks.

A former classmate named Jameson Murphy told the New York Post Crooks missed his target by about six metres at the club’s try-out.

“He tried out … and was such a comically bad shot he was unable to make the team and left after the first day,” Mr Murphy said.

A second classmate told The Post Crookes “couldn’t shoot at all. He was a terrible shot”.

CBS reports Crooks had been a member of a Pennsylvania gun club for the past year.

“We can confirm that Mr Crooks was a member of the Clairton Sportsmen’s Club,” the club’s president Bill Sellitto told the network.

“Beyond that, the club is unable to make any additional commentary in relation to this matter in light of pending law enforcement investigations. Obviously, the Club fully admonishes the senseless act of violence that occurred yesterday.”

Gunman identified

Since he has been identified, law enforcement has taken action and closed down all roads leading to the shooter’s family home.

“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,” the Bureau said in a statement.

Sources told The New York Post that Crooks was planted on the roof of a manufacturing plant more than 130 yards (about 120m) away from the stage at Butler Farm Show grounds.

His identity comes as the FBI formally confirmed the incident as an assassination attempt.

Special agent in charge of the FBI Pittsburgh field office, Kevin Rojek, said the grounds remained an “active crime scene”.

“We have a number of agents on the scene. We do not currently have an identified motive, although our investigators are working tirelessly to attempt to identify what that motive was,” he said.

Deputy Commissioner of Operations for the Pennsylvania State Police, George Bivens, praised law enforcement for their “heroic efforts” in bringing down the shooter.

“It was a chaotic scene. There were some complicators that slowed down some of the processing and the positive identification of the shooter,” he said.

“But at this time, we have no reason to believe that there is any other existing threat out there.”

Victim’s family mourns ‘hero’

Footage has been shared online of police officers carrying a person off the bleacher which was stationed near the stage Trump was speaking on.

Comperatore, a former volunteer fire chief, was confirmed Sunday as the victim who was killed by one of Crooks’ bullets.

Comperatore’s sister, Dawn Comperatore Schafer, said her brother died while trying to protect his daughter when gunfire rang out during Trump’s speech.

“The hatred for one man took the life of the one man we loved the most. He was a hero that shielded his daughters,” she wrote on Facebook.

“His wife and girls just lived through the unthinkable and unimaginable,” she added.

Comperatore’s daughter, Allyson, called her father “the best dad a girl could ever ask for,” as she mourned his sudden death.

Allyson said that when the gunshots rang out, Comperatore quickly threw her and her mother to the ground to try to protect them after Trump was shot.

“He truly loved us enough to take a real bullet for us,” Allyson wrote on Facebook.

“And I want nothing more than to cry on him and tell him thank you.”

A Trump supporter who was watching the rally from afar told the BBC he saw a man wearing tan clothing armed with a rifle climb onto a nearby building.

He said after the shooting, he saw the man shot dead by Secret Service personnel.

“We noticed a guy crawling … bear crawling up the roof of the building beside us,” he said.

“He had a rifle. You could clearly see him with a rifle.

“We’re pointing at him, the police are running around on the ground.”

The man claimed he attempted to alert police several times but they were slow to act.

“I’m thinking why is Trump still speaking? Why haven’t they pulled him off the stage?” he said.

“Next thing you know, five shots ring out.”

Asked if he was certain that was where the shots came from he replied: “100 per cent”.

“Why is there not Secret Service on all of these roofs here? I mean this is not a big place.”

The man said he saw the Secret Service shoot the man: “They blew his head off.”

“They crawled up on the roof, made sure they had their guns on him, made sure he was dead – he was dead. And it was over,” he said.

Audio from the rally stage captured the moment a guard said the words “shooter’s down, we’re good to move”, before Trump was raised to his feet.

Iraq War veteran and former sniper employment officer Blake Hall posted to X a map showing how far the shooter was from the Trump rally.

He said it appeared there were “major security lapses” to allow someone to take an “easy shot” at the former President from less than 130m away.

“How can the dude at a cookout spot the shooter before the detail?!?” Mr Hall wrote.

“The far rooftop is an obvious firing position. Local police should have been deployed to secure it. Additionally, drones should have been monitoring.”

Shortly after the incident, Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi released a statement confirming the shooter had been killed.

“A suspected shooter fired multiple toward the stage from an elevated position outside of the rally venue. US Secret Service personnel neutralised the shooter, who is now dead.”

He said the Secret Service would lead the investigation into the shooting.

“An incident occurred the evening of July 13 at a Trump rally in Pennsylvania,” he wrote on X.

“The Secret Service has implemented protective measures and the former President is safe.

“This is now an active Secret Service investigation and further information will be released when available.”

Australian Sam Harley, who was at the rally with his partner, ABC producer Phoebe Hozier, said he saw the Secret Service return shots at the gunman.

“I saw the Secret Service on the roof further off to the left fire off a volley of shots and that’s when I knew that this was serious and so we all hit the deck and it was panic and chaos,” he said.

“There was a first round of shots, that I assume was from the shooter, and then everyone was kind of a bit unsure what it was and then the Secret Service fired off shots – I think it was one of the snipers who were on the roof to the right of Donald Trump – and then the Secret Service came running in, tackled Donald Trump to the ground and basically surrounded him and kept him safe.”

The ABC’s Planet America host John Barron told News 24 this morning that the shooting of a president or candidate was “far from unprecedented”.

“Historically, there have been assassination attempts against presidential candidates,” he said.

“In 1968, Robert F Kennedy, Senator Bobby Kennedy, was shot and killed in California in June of that year, as he was campaigning for the presidency of the United States.

“Four years later in 1972, Governor George Wallace of Alabama was campaigning for the Democratic nomination. He was shot and he was left permanently disabled, wheelchair-bound, after suffering from gunshot wounds then.

“We have seen a number of acts of political violence over the years in the United States. We haven’t, though, for many decades, so it is quite shocking to see this.”

Four presidents – Abraham Lincoln, James A. Garfield, William McKinley and John Fitzgerald Kennedy – were killed during their term in office.

Trump has become the third president or former president to survive an assassination attempt, after Theodore Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan.

– With The NY Post