FBI probing motives, background of Thomas Matthew Crooks, the Western Pa. gunman behind Donald Trump assassination attempt – Former classmates described Crooks as politically conservative and a ‘loner.’

https://www.inquirer.com/news/pennsylvania/thomas-matthew-crooks-trump-shooter-id-butler-20240714.html

42 comments

  2. So like literally every mass shooter from the last decade.

    This is why I’m an advocate of gun control. Despite the narrative the rightwing nuts are trying to spin, the overwhelming majority of reasonable people are not in favor of political violence

  3. Pretty much coming off as a generic crazy person wouldn’t be surprised if he snapped over Trump-Epstien or something like that.

  4. In USA usualy who loves automatic rifle is not leftie

  6. Everything so far point toward bullied loner who just wanted to do something big and die from it with no actual political motive

  7. Does it matter?

    Fox will paint him as antifa or something, and most will believe it.

    They will do a low-key retraction later, and feel veeery sorry about it, when nobody is paying attention anymore.

  8. But the conservatives on shitter and reddit keep saying he’s a liberal!

  9. I have a feeling that this guy just wanted attention more than having a political agenda.

  10. I thought he registered republican to vote against Trump in the primaries, wore the shirt as a disguise, parents were democrats, and he donated to liberals.

    Are you telling me armchair investigators are less reliable than the FBI? /s

  11. *pretends to be shocked*

    Oh but wait, I’m being told by Trump’s cult followers on Reddit that it’s totally jumping the gun to say that this registered Republican who wears right wing paraphernalia and tries to assassinate politicians was a registered Republican who tried to assassinate politicians.

    You mean to tell me the violent rhetoric that Republicans have injected into our society and in their members has led to more acts of violence, but that it’s only when that violence affects their Dear Leader that they actually give a shit?

    I’m done pretending to be shocked. This is the GOP and Donald Trump’s legacy: chaos, violence, and gas-lighting.

  12. >Former student Max R. Smith remembered Crooks as an intelligent classmate with conservative political leanings. Smith recalled participating in a mock debate in a course they took together, where their teacher posed questions on government policy and had students stand on opposite sides of the classroom to signal their support or opposition.

    >“The majority of the class were on the liberal side, but Tom, no matter what, always stood his ground on the conservative side,” Smith 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.

    Soon enough he will be the poster boy for antifa by way of right-wing news.

  13. Crooks is a Vigilante Pedophile Hunter. Case solved. The GQP created their own boogeyman.

  14. So why did he go after Trump? Did he think Trump was the vice president because of what Biden said?

  16. I’m surprised they are not blaming the FBI, or even trust the FBI to do an investigation.

  19. The reality is he fits the profile of an active shooter. The specific political slant doesn’t matter (in the context of red flags). Had this not become his final act, it likely would have been a school or public venue somewhere. No telling what grievances he was collecting. Hurt people hurt people. A mercilessly bullied loner, wm, military age. We know this drill. Yet nothing will change.

  20. The reality is he fits the profile of an active shooter. The specific political slant doesn’t matter (in the context of red flags). Had this not become his final act, it likely would have been a school or public venue somewhere. No telling what grievances he was collecting. Hurt people hurt people. A mercilessly bullied loner, wm, military age. We know this drill. Yet nothing will change.

  22. Nobody attempting an assassination is likely to have anything resembling a coherent ideology. It’s likely he believes in…

    *checks notes*

    …wait, that shit is mainstream in the right wing these days, thanks to more than a decade of the normalized rhetoric of radicalization.

  23. He joined the Republican Party and a class mate said he was conservative politically. But oddly he donated to a left leaning group the same year he joined the Republican Party. What’s going on there?

  25. I have noticed that I haven’t been getting a lot of push back on my posts or seen it in other people’s posts here. There are few people who try to troll bait me, and it really isn’t working. It’s so weak.

    Wonder if it’s because the bots and trolls don’t know which angle to approach this with yet. Like they don’t have their marching orders just yet. Or perhaps it’s so indefensibly a Republican attacking a Republican that they don’t have anything to go off of.

  26. Right this very second there are a dozen unhinged maga larpers plotting something incredibly dangerous thinking they’re “called to defend”. Tell me I’m hyper ventilating. I am. Something is going to happen

  27. This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](https://www.inquirer.com/news/pennsylvania/thomas-matthew-crooks-trump-shooter-id-butler-20240714.html) reduced by 94%. (I’m a bot)
    *****
    > A defiant Donald Trump called for unity and resilience a day after surviving an attempted assassination at a campaign rally in Western Pennsylvania, while federal authorities worked feverishly Sunday to uncover more information about the background and motivations of the 20-year-old Allegheny County man named as the shooter.

    > The gunman, whom the FBI identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks, of Bethel Park, Pa., opened fire Saturday evening from the rooftop of a building near the rally site at a fairgrounds in Butler, about an hour outside Pittsburgh, authorities said.

    > Authorities released few updates Sunday on the progress of their investigation into Trump's would-be assassin, but a portrait of Crooks – a 2022 graduate of Bethel Park High School who worked as a dietary aide at a local nursing and rehabilitation center – began to emerge.

    *****
    [**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/1e3gicx/fbi_probing_motives_background_of_thomas_matthew/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ “Version 2.02, ~690542 tl;drs so far.”) | [Blackout Vote](https://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/14dhaiq/your_voice_matters_should_the_blackout_continue/ “PM’s and comments are monitored, constructive feedback is welcome.”) | *Top* *keywords*: **Crooks**^#1 **Sunday**^#2 **Trump**^#3 **authorities**^#4 **political**^#5

  30. This is red flag operations initiated by the Hearst family and sponsored by the rothschilds this kid was initiated through rainbow six expansion pack

  32. The right: Quick, lie harder that he was a Democrat! HNNNNHGH!

  33. His classmates said he was smart. He realized trump isn’t a republican, but a lying, stealing, pedo rapist 

  34. He’s probably a member of the radical MRLA >!Mitt Romney Liberation Army!<

  35. It’s so weird that all these shooters are exactly the same kind of people after we’ve done absolutely nothing to address it for decades. /s

  38. /r/conservative about to swap topics real quick lmao

  39. He was a lone wolf shooter. All those people are crisis actors. The republicans need to get over it.

  41. He also donated to a Democratic PAC, so it’s defenietley odd.

    Edit: Redditors denying reality is even more odd

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