( NYPost )
Thomas Matthew Crooks, the gunman who attempted to assassinate former President Donald Trump during a Pennsylvania rally on Saturday, has been pictured for the first time.
Crooks, 20, was on the roof of a manufacturing plant over 130 yards away from Trump’s rally at Butler Farm Show grounds on Saturday when he took fire at the former president — grazing Trump’s ear and killing one rally attendee.
Immediately after he began shooting, Secret Service snipers took the 20-year-old out. He was found with an AR-style semi-automatic assault rifle and was wearing a shirt for a popular gun YouTube channel, Demolition Ranch, which has over 11 million subscribers.
Startling images shared online show a Secret Service sniper standing over Crooks’ body. Crooks can be seen lying on the ground wearing all gray, with blood streaking across his face and into his long, brown hair.
One former classmate, who confirmed photos of Crooks, told The 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.”
Crooks grew up in the Pittsburgh suburb of Bethel Park, Pa., a village about 40 miles south of Trump’s rally in Butler.
According to state voter status records, he was a registered Republican.
He also made a single $15 donation to the liberal ActBlue political action committee on Jan. 20, 2021 — President Biden’s Inauguration Day, the Intercept reported.
At the time of the donation, Crooks was 17 years old. He registered to vote upon turning 18 in September of that same year as a member of the GOP, records show.
Crooks was a member of the 2022 graduating class at Bethel Park High School, the school district confirmed Sunday morning.
Video shows him walking across a stage to accept his diploma.
He also received a $500 National Math and Science Initative Star Award during his graduating year, TribLive reported.
Why Crooks fired on the presumptive Republican presidential nominee is unclear.
Early Sunday the FBI officially confirmed the Post’s reporting, calling Crooks the “subject involved” in the attack on Trump.
The streets around Crooks’ house were blocked off by police on Sunday, but a neighbor told The Post he saw an Allegheny County bomb squad car prepping to enter the home just after 1 a.m.
“I saw a post of his name and that he lived in Bethel Park, so I looked him up and he lives .3 miles away,” Dan Maloney, 30, said of the shooter.
“I went down there and spoke to the county bomb squad at 1:06 a.m. He said he was about to go into the house,” Maloney added. “I didn’t know the guy. No one in this neighborhood really talks to each other.”
“It’s a tragedy. One person died, another is in the hospital. He went after a former president and likely the next president.”
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