The father of Thomas Crooks recently shared unsettling insights about his son’s life prior to the attempted assassination of President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania. This information, disclosed by Matthew Crooks, appeared in FBI summaries and other documents that were reviewed by the New York Post as part of a congressional investigation into the incident.
Matthew described his son as having never formed a strong bond with him, indicating that Thomas had always been stoic and difficult to read. “When Thomas was born, he did not scream; he remained quiet from that point onward,” he recounted.
Although his childhood was tumultuous, Matthew asserted that Thomas was quite intelligent. In elementary school, he damaged school property out of boredom, leading his parents to suspect he might have ADHD or was influenced by poor company in middle school. Matthew even mentioned that he once attempted to provoke an emotional response from Thomas, making him cry.
In high school, Thomas became even more withdrawn and struggled to communicate with teachers, eventually developing a habit of talking to himself, which grew more pronounced over the years. His father noted that Thomas scored 1400 on the SAT without any preparation and later achieved a near-perfect score of 1500 on a subsequent attempt.
During his upbringing, Thomas repeatedly denied being gay despite his parents observing a lack of interest in girls. He showed an increasing fascination with firearms, once inquiring whether he needed to undergo a background check to buy his father’s Glock. His interest in guns didn’t extend to hunting, though he requested to inherit his grandfather’s firearms.
According to Matthew, while Thomas struggled initially with marksmanship, he improved significantly after years of practice, even sharing his shooting targets with his father. On the day of the shooting, Matthew admitted to giving Thomas a Panther A-15 rifle, believing he was heading to a shooting range.
Matthew indicated that Thomas was registered as a Republican, but he felt this was merely due to his own political affiliation. Though Thomas showed a casual interest in politics, he reportedly didn’t espouse typical Republican beliefs. He expressed disapproval of the welfare state and “woke” ideologies but had a rather nonchalant attitude toward the party’s more defined principles.
Interestingly, Thomas was perturbed by the events of January 6 and did not believe the 2020 election had been compromised. In 2021, he contributed $15 to a progressive Democratic group. According to his father, Thomas enjoyed both rap and country music, sometimes dancing to these genres alone in his room.
Despite exhibiting no outward signs of distress, Thomas began purchasing items from Amazon, including components and tools to modify his rifle. He even adopted the alias “Bob Dole” for delivery addresses in an attempt to avoid potential hackers. The family remains bewildered, grappling with the tragic question of why Thomas attempted to take the president’s life.
On July 13, 2024, during a rally, Trump was injured when shot in the ear, with three attendees behind him also shot, one fatally. Thomas Crooks was shot and killed almost immediately by a Secret Service sniper.
