BETHEL PARK, Pa. — FBI Director Christopher Wray said Wednesday that Thomas Crooks’ family had more than a dozen firearms in their Pennsylvania home and that his father, Matthew Crooks, had legally sold his son the weapons that the 20-year-old Crooks intended to use in the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump.
“We found numerous firearms associated with the perpetrator and his family,” Wray told the House Judiciary Committee. “We believe there were a total of 14 firearms in the home.”
“The weapon used in the assassination attempt was an AR-type rifle that was legally purchased,” Ray said. “From what we’ve seen, we believe the father purchased the gun and then legally sold it to his son.”
The revelation came the same day that Mary Crooks, the mother of Trump’s would-be assassin, was photographed outdoors for the first time since her son opened fire at the Butler rally.
The shooter’s mother, who is visually impaired, was ushered by her husband out of their blue Toyota Tacoma and into their Bethel Park home Wednesday around 7 p.m. Matthew Crooks opened the car door for his mother and held her hand as they entered the home.
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In his testimony Wednesday, Ray said Crooks’ son was a “fairly avid shooter.”
Wray said an AR-15 and rifle magazines, as well as a bulletproof vest and a “crude” remote-detonable explosive device, were found in Crooks’ car after he was shot and killed by a Secret Service sniper.
The FBI director said the bureau was still searching for written statements and other clues that could pinpoint a motive for the 20-year-old suspect, Crooks, who nearly killed President Trump, injured two rally attendees and killed former fire chief Cory Comperatore on July 13. He added that the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit was developing a profile of the suspect.
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Thomas Matthew Crookes (Courtesy of AFP)
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The FBI has conducted more than 400 interviews in its investigation of the shooting. The FBI does not typically discuss ongoing investigations, but Wray said Tuesday that “an attempted assassination of a former president is an attack on our democracy.”[d] Parliament and the public interest in this case.”
The shooter’s father told reporters this week that the family was not ready to comment on his son’s actions.
Matthew Crooks leaves a supermarket in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania on July 22, 2024. (Derek Shook for Fox News Digital)
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“I will make a statement once I receive advice from my lawyers. Until then I cannot comment,” he told Fox News Digital before starting to load groceries into his car outside a Shop ‘n Save near his family’s home. “Right now we just want to take care of ourselves. Please give us space.”
