FBI identifies Trump rally shooter as Thomas Matthew Crooks <--- Thread is about the perpetrator, the crime, and the motivation, not Trump

[essentialsaltes]

Trump shooter requested Saturday off from work and told colleagues he’d be back at work Sunday, officials say​

By 3 p.m. on Saturday, roughly three hours before the shooting, Crooks was at the security screening area for the rally. He first aroused suspicion when he passed through the magnetometers carrying a rangefinder, which looks similar to a small pair of binoculars and is used by hunters and target shooters to measure distances when setting up a long-range shot, according to a senior law enforcement official briefed on the investigation.

The rangefinder would not have prevented Crooks from getting through the security screening point, but it did attract the attention of security personnel who kept an eye on him until he left the secure area.

Investigators are unsure of where Crooks went after he left the screening area but the working theory is that he went to his car to retrieve the rifle.

Crooks gained access to the rooftop by climbing on top of the building’s air conditioning system and hoisting himself up, according to a senior federal law enforcement official briefed on the investigation.

After the shooting, multiple law enforcement sources said investigators found a bulletproof vest, three fully-loaded magazines, and two remote-controlled explosive devices in Crooks’ car.

Additionally, after a search of his residence, investigators discovered another bulletproof vest, another remote-controlled explosive device, and a 3D printer, according to multiple law enforcement sources.

FBI and DHS warn of potential ‘follow-on or retaliatory attacks’ following Trump assassination attempt​

The agencies said that Thomas Matthew Crooks, the 20-year–old shooter in Saturday’s attack at the rally, had improvised explosive devices in his car as well as his home and ordered packages potentially containing hazardous material over the last several months.

 

[Belk]

I actually haven't condemned the left fie rhetoric. I have condemned the left for being so upset at Trumps rhetoric and saying nothing about their own. Do you condemn the rhetoric calling Trump Hitler? Do you condemn calling him a facist and a Dictator and there will never be another election again if he is elected? Do you condemn that?

Ah! now THAT is a fair call. I agree that both sides have been guilty of it and both sides should police their own.

 

[JosephZ]

We still know little to nothing about the shooter.He obviously hated Trump.

We have no way of knowing if the shooter hated Trump or not. This could be a John Lennon or Selena-type infatuation scenario; maybe he was trying to impress someone, like we saw with the attempted assassination of President Reagan. He may have been a groyper who was angry that Trump distanced himself from Project 2025. Nothing is obvious at this point and it's possible we may never learn what the shooter's motive was for targeting Trump.

 

[durangodawood]

... Do you condemn calling him a facist and a Dictator and there will never be another election again if he is elected? Do you condemn that?

I havent heard that one yet. Is anyone prominent saying it? I would reconsider support for anyone saying something so ridiculous.

Trumps own VP pick called him a Hitler. That does indicate poor judgement unbecoming of a potential president.

From Trump himself we hear if you vote for the other guy you wont have a country anymore. Lets reconsider support for people who say such words of war.

 

[bèlla]

Lots of unintended consequences happen in finance that can't be included in calculations. Like when a company collapses and takes their pension fund with them. Or an attack on a Saudi minister sends oil prices skyrocketing.

Whose calculations? The ones for the public or what happens behind the scenes?

I worked for a sizable mortgage company in the past. I knew the feds would take them down long before the rest. I did the internal and external audits and the paperwork revealed it. The company began dismantling without notice. They were firing and lying simultaneously and few knew the reason why. My co-worker had just purchased a home and two months later she was unemployed.

The pension grab was an inside job just like Enron. The reason people get stuck is because they're uninformed. What percentage of employees read the annual report, listen to the quarterly call, review the profit statements or know how to read a balance sheet? But they entrust them with their livelihood.

And attacks are usually planned. You need ears where it counts if there's money on the line. If you're a consumer relying on the media you're out of luck.

~bella

 

[rjs330]

So "reasonable" that his lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, was disbarred in NY (and likely DC, too) for making them? So "reasonable" that Fox News settled just one of their defamation cases for $787 million?

Quite frankly whatever New York and DC does is based upon being a completely liberal and biased state and justice systems there. They hate Trump.ajd everyone associated with him.

So yes at the time it was reasonable. Like I said I don't think he went about it the right way and said so at the time.

I don't care what Fox News settled.

At the time there certainly irregularities.that needed to be investigated. Not everyone handled it appropriately.

What part of that is my opinion? That folks on his team drummed up fake electors and tried to submit them to Pence?

Sounds terrible. I guess we'll wait and see what happens with it.

 

[RDKirk]

We still know little to nothing about the shooter.He obviously hated Trump. But we don't know why. What we have been told is this guy is practically a ghost. We are told he is a registered Republican who donated to a liberal pac. He wore camo clothes and was a loner who was cheered at his graduation. But no one has any idea why he hated Trump enough to try and kill him.

I don't think he hated Trump. I think within the year he could have been another school shooter. Trump's visit serendipitously presented a way for him to go out in a brighter flame of infamy.

 

[RDKirk]

Whose calculations? The ones for the public or what happens behind the scenes?

I worked for a sizable mortgage company in the past. I knew the feds would take them down long before the rest. I did the internal and external audits and the paperwork revealed it. The company began dismantling without notice. They were firing and lying simultaneously and few knew the reason why. My co-worker had just purchased a home and two months later she was unemployed.

The pension grab was an inside job just like Enron. The reason people get stuck is because they're uninformed. What percentage of employees read the annual report, listen to the quarterly call, review the profit statements or know how to read a balance sheet? But they entrust them with their livelihood.

And attacks are usually planned. You need ears where it counts if there's money on the line. If you're a consumer relying on the media you're out of luck.

~bella

Yes, attacks are usually planned, but not usually by the people who did the calculations.

 

[Ana the Ist]

The reason I’m critical of the Secret Service is that only luck or divine intervention saved Trump.

I'm not saying that the Secret Service couldn't have done things better. I think that's obvious.

It's important to remember that basically anyone in that crowd could have fired at Trump with a concealed gun. A vehicle could have pulled up 150 yards away and taken a shot. A drone could be flown in with an explosive attached...

Its nearly impossible to cover all possibilities.

There’s no way someone should have been able to climb a building with a direct line of sight to Trump that close without being seen and stopped. It’s a massive failure on behalf of the Secret Service and heads should be rolling but they won’t be in this administration.

I'd tend to agree but we don't know all the details.

 

[Ana the Ist]

Suspicious to me... Like someone picked a really good tool for the job.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/15/politics/fbi-shooter-phone/index.html

There's no offer I can think of that would prompt this.

The guy isn't Jack Ruby.

 

[iluvatar5150]

Quite frankly whatever New York and DC does is based upon being a completely liberal and biased state and justice systems there. They hate Trump.ajd everyone associated with him.

Ah okay, I see. Whatever helps keep the cognitive dissonance at bay.

 

[RDKirk]

I'm not saying that the Secret Service couldn't have done things better. I think that's obvious.

It's important to remember that basically anyone in that crowd could have fired at Trump with a concealed gun. A vehicle could have pulled up 150 yards away and taken a shot. A drone could be flown in with an explosive attached...

Its nearly impossible to cover all possibilities.

There seems to be an unspoken general assumption that the Secret Service had all the resources available in the world to cover that one place at that time, and that decisions didn't have to be made on manpower and coverage based on the expectations of the conditions of the situation and the expected capabilities of local law enforcement.

 

[iluvatar5150]

There seems to be an unspoken general assumption that the Secret Service had all the resources available in the world to cover that one place at that time, and that decisions didn't have to be made on manpower and coverage based on the expectations of the conditions of the situation and the expected capabilities of local law enforcement.

That was the angle I was taking at the beginning, but now that it's come out that the local cops were inside the building, it's looking more like an oversight than a lack of resources.

 

[Ana the Ist]

I don't think he hated Trump.

Daddy's a Libertarian. Mommy's a Democrat. Unless his politics differed wildly (and they might have, he registered as a Republican) he probably heard a lot of negative things about Trump....frequently.

Meet Chase Oliver, the youthful Libertarian presidential nominee

Meet Chase Oliver, the Libertarian presidential nominee giving voters an alternative option in a Trump v Biden rematch.

www.google.com

The libertarians went with a gay, woke, idealist who doesn't exactly say nice things about Trump. The Democrats don't really have anything to run on other than "Trump is a hyperbolic cartoonish danger to democracy" (which they're now trying to tone police and back paddle on, Biden is explaining his Biden admits Trump 'bullseye' comments a mistake "bullseye" comment as best he can).

It seems pretty likely this kid was in one of those "Trump is a fascist, potential dictator, etc" households. He may have been doing it for parental approval.

 

[iluvatar5150]

It seems pretty likely this kid was in one of those "Trump is a fascist, potential dictator, etc" households. He may have been doing it for parental approval.

Last I heard, the kid always identified as conservative and neighbors reporting seeing MAGA signs in the yard as recently as a few months ago.

 

[rjs330]

I havent heard that one yet. Is anyone prominent saying it? I would reconsider support for anyone saying something so ridiculous.

Trumps own VP pick called him a Hitler. That does indicate poor judgement unbecoming of a potential president.

From Trump himself we hear if you vote for the other guy you wont have a country anymore. Lets reconsider support for people who say such words of war.

Yes I've heard it. And I condemn such language. The rhetoric has gotten way out of hand. We shouldn't be saying stuff like the guy (whomever that is) is a threat to democracy, they are Hitler, they are going to be a Dictator, or they need to be eliminated, or they are going to be responsible for the death of millions, which I read the other day. We need to dial it back. It's just gotten worse and worse on both sides.

When someone calls a leader Hitler, a Dictator. The guy who's going to end democracy if that is true and he really is that guy then it would be morally correct to assassinate him would it not?

If he's not really, then why say it?

And for heavens sake will someone on threat left please call for the end of this kind of rhetoric?

I don't condone some of the rhetor9c on the Republican side either. Vance calling him Hitler is ridiculous. If someone said Biden wad Stalin I would condemn that as well. Trumps rhtoric is one reason I didn't vote for him in 2016 and I criticized him all through his presidency. I also defended him at times when i thought it was warranted. We all need to tone it down a bit. Including conservatives. Won't someone join me? Will any of you liberals say your side needs to dial it back some?

 

[Ana the Ist]

There seems to be an unspoken general assumption that the Secret Service had all the resources available in the world to cover that one place at that time, and that decisions didn't have to be made on manpower and coverage based on the expectations of the conditions of the situation and the expected capabilities of local law enforcement.

Indeed. I've seen a lot of criticism...and it makes sense because the right is angry they almost lost their candidate and there's few else to be angry at.

Obviously, the rhetoric of the left hasn't been good....but it's not as if running on Biden's record is working and Biden is struggling to sell himself to his own party. All they really had left is fear mongering and catastrophizing the possibility of another Trump term.

The shooter is dead. No motive yet...which seems like it may be the permanent state of things. The gun appears to be legally obtained, the parents are staying quiet, that leaves few other outlets for their anger....

Of course, the secret service and local leos are pretty much the only people who it's socially acceptable to blame for not being perfect all the time.

Maybe there was a catastrophic failure...or perhaps they did the best they could with what they had. I wonder if they took this kind of heat when Reagan was shot.

At the end of the day, their job was to keep the president alive. Preventing these things from happening is preferred....but if they happen, a living president is the best outcome. I'm not angry at them...nor can I give any credence to conspiracy theories about their compliance with this anymore than I can to the idea this was staged.

 

[rjs330]

Last I heard, the kid always identified as conservative and neighbors reporting seeing MAGA signs in the yard as recently as a few months ago.

Yeah, I don't know that I put much stock in some of that. Especially the MAGA signs. Doesn't make any sense with the type of family they were.

 

[durangodawood]

Yes I've heard it. And I condemn such language. The rhetoric has gotten way out of hand. We shouldn't be saying stuff like the guy (whomever that is) is a threat to democracy, they are Hitler, they are going to be a Dictator, or they need to be eliminated, or they are going to be responsible for the death of millions, which I read the other day. We need to dial it back. It's just gotten worse and worse on both sides.

When someone calls a leader Hitler, a Dictator. The guy who's going to end democracy if that is true and he really is that guy then it would be morally correct to assassinate him would it not?

If he's not really, then why say it?

And for heavens sake will someone on threat left please call for the end of this kind of rhetoric?

I don't condone some of the rhetor9c on the Republican side either. Vance calling him Hitler is ridiculous. If someone said Biden wad Stalin I would condemn that as well. Trumps rhtoric is one reason I didn't vote for him in 2016 and I criticized him all through his presidency. I also defended him at times when i thought it was warranted. We all need to tone it down a bit. Including conservatives. Won't someone join me? Will any of you liberals say your side needs to dial it back some?

Talk of authoritarian isnt exactly discouraged when the prominent American "conservative" political conference hosts someone like Viktor Orban as their keynote speaker. This is dead center American political conservatism here, not some off in the weeds fringe group.

If they dont want to be called authoritarian leaning they shouldnt embrace and fete authoritarian heros. And onlookers shouldnt be blamed for raising alarms in the proper terms.

 

[Ana the Ist]

Last I heard, the kid always identified as conservative and neighbors reporting seeing MAGA signs in the yard as recently as a few months ago.

Well, I'll give you this....there's a few different types of libertarians....right?

There's the small government socially progressive anarcho-capitalist libertarian that leans woke.

Then there's the "I hate all government" sovereign citizens libertarian that may support Trump for all I know.

I'm tending to guess the father is more of the first type since he and the mother were social workers....and she's a Democrat. It sounds like the shooter's job "fixing meals" was probably also social work.

A family of social workers doesn't seem Trump's demographic.

The only thing consistent I've seen from his former classmates is that he was a loner.