Disturbing footage allegedly led to Thomas Crooks preparing his handgun while adopting a tactical stance at his residence.
The 20-year-old Crooks is said to have been active online, but he shot at Donald Trump, who was then a Republican presidential candidate, and was eventually “scraped” from the web.
In a cellphone video, Crooks is seen recording a handgun resting on his neatly arranged bed. He later flips the camera to show himself in athletic attire, alongside a sniper and a skinny man, all within a sparsely decorated room adorned with a Marvel superhero poster.
Upon picking up a blurry handgun, he assumes a tactical position as if aiming at an unseen target off-camera.
Another short video shared by an online fraudster featured a similar practice gun, showing Crooks adopting a noticeably aggressive demeanor.
This time, Crooks stands still, mimicking a practiced stance in front of a target sheet marked with a blue circle.
His online activities unveiled a concerning fascination with assassinations, mass shootings, firearms, and explosives.
FBI analysis of the assailant’s laptop revealed searches such as “how far Oswald was from Kennedy,” suggesting a troubling interest just a week before the shooting incident at a Trump campaign rally on July 6, 2024, in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Former FBI Director Chris Wray testified to Congress that Crooks was not on their radar prior to his assassination attempt.
Crooks had shown interest in figures like Ethan Crumbley, the shooter involved in the Oxford High School tragedy, and appeared to have researched various major violent events, including how explosives are made.
On that day, Crooks fired eight shots at Trump, causing minor injuries to him and tragically killing a supporter named Corey Comperatore.
The FBI noted that Crooks conducted a final internet search moments before he was shot himself.
Earlier reports highlighted Crooks’s search history, which included queries like “The World’s Most Fatal Mass Shooting,” “Pulse Nightclub Police Body Camera,” “Fertilizer Bomb,” and “How to Make Molotov Cocktail.” His history also revealed violent comments linked to YouTube content.
