President Donald Trump’s would-be killer Thomas Matthew Crooks lived a solitary and secretive life that spiraled into murderous madness in the months leading up to last year’s shooting that was mere inches away from altering American history, sources say.
Gunman Crooks, 20, left behind no manifesto or explanation for why he unleashed a barrage of eight bullets at Trump as the then-former POTUS addressed a crowd of about 15,000 gathered at his presidential campaign rally at the Butler Farm Showgrounds in Butler, Pa., on July 13, 2024.
The triggerman’s vicious volley of shots miraculously only grazed Republican candidate Trump’s right ear, but killed former firefighter Corey Comperatore, 50, and wounded fellow audience members James Copenhaver, 74, and David Dutch, 57.
Crooks was killed by a federal agent’s shot seconds after he opened fire — marking a bloody end to a young man who had once earned near-perfect grades in high school and at the Community College of Allegheny County — in addition to notching a remarkable 1530 on the SATs.
A months-long investigation into the aspiring engineer’s life reveals he began to unravel after Thanksgiving in 2023, when his mounting mental health issues apparently metastasized into suicidal mania.
According to excerpts from a Pennsylvania State Police report cited by CBS News, Crooks’ father, Matthew, recalled several instances of seeing his son dancing alone in his room throughout the night and talking to himself with his hands moving.
The report states that Tristan Radcliffe, one of Crooks’ only school pals, also began seeing troubling personality cracks in his lifelong friend, remarking, “He would always move his legs around a lot, and he would kind of talk pretty fast.”
Meanwhile, the FBI says that Crooks was busy building deadly bombs in his bedroom and sharpening his skills as a marksman at a local firing range with a rifle he’d bought from his father in mid-2023 for $500.
Lawmen say Crooks began using an encrypted email service and a virtual private network in an attempt to cover his digital tracks, a review of his online searches turned up visits to weapons blogs and AR15.com, as well as chilling queries such as “DNC convention” and “when is the RNC in 2024?”
One veteran investigator, who was not affiliated with the case, told the National Enquirer: “It doesn’t appear that he had any particular political allegiance. It looks more like he wanted a famous target, or a large gathering to attack, and Trump was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Mental health expert Dr. Gilda Carle, author of Real Men Don’t Go Woke, says Crooks’ latent mental health problems likely exploded once he began college.
“I’ve seen this happen before,” says Carle, who did not treat Crooks. “Kids go to school and whatever malignant forces they are struggling with begin to overwhelm a fragile psyche.”
The shocking revelations come as the Government Accountability Office (GAO) — the U.S. government’s chief auditor — issued a bombshell report noting Secret Service brass received a classified intelligence warning that Trump’s life was in danger 10 days before Crooks tried to kill him.
Despite the disturbing intelligence, the Biden administration denied a request from the Trump campaign for additional resources for the Butler event and local law enforcement was never alerted to the fact.
The GAO report also spells out other errors, including a “misallocation of resources, lack of training and pervasive communication failures” ahead of Crooks’ attack.
In all, six Secret Service agents were suspended without pay for their mistakes or negligence, and Kimberly Cheatle, the agency director, resigned a week after Crooks’ shooting.
“There were mistakes made,” Trump said on FOX News, “and that shouldn’t have happened.”
