Thomas Matthew Crooks became increasingly obsessed with guns and long-range shooting before he tried to assassinate Donald Trump on the campaign trail in July 2024, according to newly unclassified documents released by the FBI.
Crooks, a 20-year-old engineering student, spent the day before he fired at Trump at the Clairton Sportsmen’s Club in Clairton, Pennsylvania, where he practiced shooting once a week on average, according to the federal files. He was a “terrible shot” at first, his father told investigators, according to documents cited by the New York Post, but he diligently practiced on his own and at shooting ranges.
An employee at Keystone Shooting Center outside Pittsburgh described Crooks as “an odd duck” and “not someone they would want their daughter to spend time with,” federal investigators noted in the documents. A person at the Clairton gun club told investigators he remembered Crooks practicing a 100-yard shot the day before Trump’s speech in Butler, Pennsylvania.
The collection of reports and interviews comprises 600 pages of interviews with Crooks’ relatives, neighbors, teachers and classmates. It also includes reports from responding law enforcement officers and details from the ensuing investigation.
Together, the documents provide the first detailed look at Trump’s would-be assassin and his obsession with firearms, which Crooks’ father, Matthew Crooks, told investigators he developed during the Covid pandemic, according to the Post.
Attempts to reach Matthew Crooks were unsuccessful Tuesday night.
NBC News has not independently verified the documents the Post cited in its reporting on Crooks’ father, which the office of Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said it showed the newspaper in person.
NBC News requested the documents from Grassley, but his office did not provide them. In a brief interview Tuesday, Grassley said, “We don’t know anything about the motivation [of] why [Crooks] wanted to kill Trump.”
One person was killed and two others were injured in the gunfire at the Butler Farm Show grounds.
Crooks spent the months leading up to the Butler rally purchasing firearms and taking classes at Keystone Shooting Center, according to federal documents. He enrolled in basic and intermediate handgun courses and ordered gun parts online using the pseudonym Bob Dole, his father told investigators in an interview obtained by the Post.
Matthew Crooks said his son perfected his aim over five years but showed no interest in outdoorsmanship, according to the Post. Instead, he mostly kept to himself and became increasingly withdrawn from his family, the Post reported. Crooks rarely showed emotions, his father told investigators, even when they argued, according to the paper.
His son was described in federal documents by those who knew him, and whose names were redacted, as a history buff who could name all the U.S. presidents and enjoyed discussing the New Deal.
Classmates told investigators Crooks was shocked that Trump was elected president in 2016 but otherwise discussed politics nonchalantly, according to the files. He was critical of both political parties despite being a registered Republican, and he donated $15 to the Democratic-run Progressive Turnout Project in 2021.
“What makes Thomas ‘tic’ was his enjoyment in being ‘the smartest person in the room,’” investigators said.
While he was enrolled at Bethel Park High School, Crooks did not appear to have close friends, and he was occasionally bullied, former classmates told investigators. The bullying “was never considered excessive, a chronic issue, or outside of normal High School behaviors.” However, Crooks “would ‘shut down’” around large groups of people or authority figures, the documents said.
He also expressed interest in joining the armed services to work on nuclear submarines or with aircraft, his father told investigators.
On July 13, 2024, Crooks waited six minutes into Trump’s campaign speech before he fired eight shots from an AR-15-style rifle. Trump was struck in the ear and pumped a fist into the air as blood trickled from his ear while Secret Service members swarmed around him, eventually leading him off the stage.
Secret Service snipers pinpointed Crooks’ position on a rooftop outside the venue and killed him on the spot.
Crooks had been planning to take engineering classes at Robert Morris University after having spent two years at the Community College of Allegheny County, where he received his associate degree, according to the newly released documents.
Professors described him as a sharp student who was a delight in class, according to federal documents. A former roommate said Crooks kept an inconsistent sleep schedule and sometimes paced in the middle of the night.
Crooks developed an interest in 3D printers and other electronic devices. He made small boats and “dragon eggs,” according to a former roommate cited in the federal investigation, and he created a home security camera using Raspberry Pi, which was originally used to teach computer science.
Crooks worked at Bethel Park Nursing and Rehab as a dietary aide for about five years before the rally. Colleagues described him as an “‘odd, young kid’ who was sweet and ‘down to earth,’” federal investigators wrote. “He always did what was asked of him at work and never complained.”
A co-worker said Crooks was last spotted at the nursing home on July 12, the day before Trump was shot, according to federal documents. Crooks had asked for the next day off and volunteered to work on July 14, instead. He was scheduled to take the morning shift.
