Questions persist about the would-be assassin who shot former President Donald Trump Saturday, the Wall Street Journal reported. The 20-year-old was somehow able to set up his rifle roughly 400 feet from where Trump was speaking and fire off several shots despite the presence of the Secret Service and police.
Officials identified the shooter as Thomas Matthew Crooks, who had no prior criminal history before Saturday's assassination attempt. Crooks managed to fire off at least six rounds before being taken out by police.
The gunman wounded the former president, killed one man, and wounded two others attending a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. The FBI is purportedly conducting an investigation into the incident.
Still, they have yet to explain a motive for the shooting or even how Crooks evaded law enforcement to get close enough to line up his shot before pulling the trigger. Later reports indicating that he was spotted by law enforcement several times before pulling the trigger are fueling speculation.
It Doesn’t Add Up
What’s known about Crooks simply doesn’t add up to the kind of heinous act he committed Saturday. The FBI's investigation into the background of the baby-faced killer revealed that he left few traces of any online activity.
While other people his age document their entire existence on social media, Crooks appeared to have no photographs or posts on the internet. They found some gaming accounts and one for an online coding class, but little more.
The son of licensed professional counselors, Crooks was described by former teachers as shy but not a problematic student. In May, Crooks graduated with an associate degree in engineering science from the Community College of Allegheny County.
Crooks had been employed by the Bethel Park Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Center at the time of his death. He passed a background check and performed his job satisfactorily at the nursing home.
A neighbor who knew Crooks as a child described him as well-mannered if also "quiet, maybe a little bit different." None of this seems to explain how he would become a cold-blooded killer who would want to commit such a bold and consequential crime.
Perhaps more puzzling than the “why” of this crime is the “how” when it comes to law enforcement failures. CBS News reported that minutes before pulling the trigger, Crooks’ was spotted and photographed by one of the law enforcement snipers assigned to protect Trump.
The gunman was seen twice more, and despite communication on his whereabouts between local and federal law enforcement, Crooks managed to take his shots without being stopped. It’s unclear why snipers didn’t act faster to neutralize the threat or why the Secret Service didn't usher Trump off the stage sooner.
Even many civilians in the crowd saw Crooks and alerted police, including eyewitness Greg Smith, who told the BBC he saw the gunman "bear crawling" on the building. "The police are down there running around on the ground. We’re like, ‘Hey man, there’s a guy on the roof with a rifle,’" Smith said.
"The police were like, ‘Huh, what?’ — like they didn’t know what was going on. We’re like, ‘Right here on the roof. We can see him from right here. We can see him. He’s crawling.'" It appears law enforcement only acted after Crooks took his shots.
Nobody knows why Crooks did it or how he was allowed to scale the building, set up his rifle, and take several shots before being neutralized. What's clear is that something went seriously wrong, and Americans deserve answers.
