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The FBI said Sunday that investigators have not yet identified any ideology fuelling the gunman who fired at former US president Donald Trump at a packed campaign rally – suggesting the horrifying assassination attempt may not have a primarily political motive.
“At this time, the information that we have indicates that the shooter acted alone and that there are currently no public safety concerns,” FBI special agent-in-charge Kevin Rojek said in a telephone briefing. “At present we have not identified an ideology associated with the subject, but I want to remind everyone that we’re still very early in this investigation.”
The gunman was identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania. He was fatally shot by the Secret Service, authorities said.
While authorities have not given details of Trump’s injuries, the presumptive Republican nominee said in a post on Truth Social that he was “shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear”.
One spectator was killed and two others were critically injured in the attack.
Rojek identified the firearm used in the attack as an AR-style rifle chambered in 5.56 mm, a common caliber for such weapons. Authorities said it was purchased legally by the suspect’s father.
During a search of a vehicle used by the gunman, “we located a suspicious device which was inspected by bomb technicians,” Rojek said. “We have seized the device, rendered it safe and we are also in the process of analyzing that further.”
Bethel Park, a suburb of about 34,000 people, is seven miles (11km) south of Pittsburgh and about 64km south of Butler.
Crooks worked as a dietary aide at Bethel Park Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, the administrator of that facility said in a statement. The statement said Crooks “performed his job without concern and his background check was clean.”
“A quiet kid” is how Sarah D’Angelo, 20, remembered the boy she saw before 7.30am almost every school day for four years at Bethel Park High School. Organised by their last names, they sat a few chairs apart. She knew him as Tom.
He would arrive on time and spend most of the 20-minute period either finishing homework or playing video games on his computer, which was given to students by the school, she recalled. They hardly talked, D’Angelo said, mostly because it was early and everyone was tired.
“He was nice to anyone he talked to,” D’Angelo said.
Crooks occasionally wore hunting and camouflage-style clothes to class, which D’Angelo said was normal for the area; her high school had a rifle club, after all. In yearbooks from her freshman, sophomore and junior years, Crooks was not pictured as a member of that club – nor any other.
D’Angelo said Crooks did not appear to have many friends, but that he also did not strike her as particularly lonely. He was good at math, “a calculus-type person,” she said.
“There were a few people that were more violent in school,” she said. “He was not one of those kids.”
Bethel Park residents on Sunday described the borough as a tight-knit community made up of small-business owners and self-described family men who like to talk about their children but not about politics.
The fire department consists entirely of volunteers, said Stephen Diethorn, 66, who with his wife owns Ma and Pop’s diner. “People like to help each other, and they like to get along.”
Crooks was registered as a Republican, according to Pennsylvania’s voter status records. Campaign finance records show that someone by the name of Thomas Crooks, with the same street address as the suspected shooter, gave $15 to the Progressive Turnout Project, a Democratic voter-turnout organisation, in January 2021.
A search of court records did not indicate any criminal history.
Crooks had no ties to the US military, Pentagon spokesman Major Gen. Patrick Ryder said Sunday.
“We’ve confirmed with each of the military service branches that there is no military service affiliation for the suspect with that name or date of birth in any branch, active or reserve component in their respective databases,” Ryder said in a statement.
The FBI urged anyone with relevant information to submit it to the agency.
A local media outlet’s list of graduates of Bethel Park High School in 2022 listed Crooks as one of 20 students to have received a $500 prize for math and science from the school that year. Bethel Park High School did not reply to a request for comment.
Pennsylvania State Police Lt. Col. George Bivens described a “chaotic” scene at the rally after shots were fired in Trump’s direction as the former president was speaking on the rally stage. He said federal and local agencies were working together to interview witnesses and process the crime scene.
An initial review of online social media platforms revealed little about the shooter. Discord, the online gaming chat platform, said Sunday that it had removed a “rarely utilized” account that was linked to him.
“We have found no evidence that it was used to plan this incident, promote violence, or discuss his political views,” said Clint Smith, Discord’s chief legal officer. Discord is cooperating with law enforcement, Smith said.
By early Sunday, authorities had sealed off the area around the shooter’s home. Local fire department vehicles restricted access for several blocks, allowing only residents and investigators to enter.
In the streets outside that area, the neighbourhood seemed apolitical, with no yard signs for any cause or candidate.
But Diethorn, the diner owner, said he had noticed political tension intensifying somewhat in recent years.
Last year, he had to come out from the kitchen to break up an argument between a man who supported President Biden and another who liked Trump. They were yelling. He encouraged them to “be civil.”
Trump Rally Gunman Seen Opening Fire & Getting Killed Seconds Later in New Video | Click to read more 👇 https://t.co/AYA2rTq1eG
— TMZ (@TMZ) July 14, 2024
Then a few months ago, a man who rides his bicycle around town in a colonial outfit with a big Trump sign decided to park outside of the diner. Diethorn asked him to move across the street. He didn’t want anything controversial to discourage business.
The separation between food and politics collapsed Sunday morning, as the TV mounted above the four pots of coffee flashed pictures of the former president bleeding from the ear next to the words “Bethel Park.”
“To see a statement talking about [Bethel Park] High School on TV, it’s insane, like out of a movie or something” said customer Tony Serkis, 51. “Unfortunately, it is scarring this community right here.”
Serkis, a lifelong conservative who works in IT, credits Trump with pushing economic policies during his first term that helped Serkis and his family. They were supposed to go to the rally Saturday, but scheduling conflicts prevented them from attending.
Serkis said he grew up with close friends who were liberal and thinks it is important for people who have differences to be able to talk to each other. “We’ve lost that,” he said. “I mean, someone tried to assassinate a former president.”
D’Angelo could not recall explosive fights along partisan lines erupting in school, even among a class that weathered pandemic-era disruptions in learning and a fraught political atmosphere around the 2020 election and January 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol.
But students would discuss politics, she said. Now, as D’Angelo turns over years of memories of her quiet classmate, her mind returns to an honours American history class she took with Crooks her sophomore year.
Their final project was about the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Their teacher instructed them to determine what they think happened – including how many gunmen there were, and where they hid to fire the fatal shots.
It comes after Iran’s missiles hit Soroka Hospital, leaving it in flames.