Newly disclosed FBI records are offering an unusually detailed look at the upbringing, personality and interests of Thomas Matthew Crooks, the 20-year-old gunman who tried to assassinate President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, 2024. Interviews contained in the files portray Crooks as exceptionally withdrawn from childhood, highly intelligent and increasingly absorbed in firearms, technology and privacy in the years before the attack. His motive, however, remains unresolved.
Crooks opened fire from the roof of a nearby building during Trump’s rally, killing rally attendee Corey Comperatore and wounding Trump and two other spectators before being killed by a Secret Service counter-sniper. Congressional investigators later concluded that Crooks fired eight rounds and that major security failures contributed to his ability to carry out the attack.
“When Thomas was born he did not scream and he was always quiet from that point on,” his father, Matthew, told federal investigators.
The newly surfaced material was provided to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) as part of his continuing examination of the Butler assassination attempt and was reviewed by the New York Post.
Among the records are FBI interviews with Matthew Crooks, who told investigators he “never really had a father/son bond” with Thomas. He described his son as stoic and exceedingly difficult to read, saying he seldom displayed powerful emotions and rarely laughed.
Crooks sometimes misbehaved during elementary school because “he was bored,” according to his father. In one incident Matthew recalled, his son damaged a desk and other school property in an effort to attract attention.
By middle school, Matthew and his wife, Mary, “thought Thomas had ADHD,” according to the interview. They also worried for a time that he had begun associating with a “bad” group of children.
Matthew described another incident at home in which Thomas, following an argument, emptied an entire container of fish food into his sister’s betta fish tank.
His son’s seeming lack of emotion frustrated him so much that Matthew said he “pushed” Thomas until the boy finally began crying, in an attempt to draw an emotional response from him.
Matthew noticed additional changes between Thomas’ freshman and sophomore years of high school. His son became “a little more quiet and reserved” and began having “issues with speaking to his teachers.”
At the same time, Matthew said he often observed Thomas talking to himself, behavior that “became more noticeable over the years.”
Looking back, Matthew expressed regret that his “work schedules” prevented him from regularly driving his son to and from extracurricular activities. He wondered whether greater involvement in those activities might have provided Thomas, who largely kept to himself, with a healthier social outlet.
Academically, Thomas placed considerable pressure on himself. His father told investigators that he immersed himself in college-preparation classes because he “feared he may not get into college.” Matthew added, “He was putting a lot of pressure on himself.”
Thomas may have lacked social skills and “street smarts,” as his father put it, but he demonstrated significant academic ability.
According to Matthew, his son earned a 1400 on the SAT the first time he took the exam without preparing for it. On a later attempt, he raised his score to nearly 1500.
Thomas periodically mentioned possible careers but apparently never developed a firm commitment to any of them.
“At one point, Thomas wanted to join the military to work in nuclear submarines, but this was more of just an idea as Thomas thought it would be ‘cool,’” according to FBI notes from an interview with the gunman’s father.
Matthew also told investigators that his son apparently never had a romantic relationship and “never showed interest in girls.” According to his father, Thomas “repeatedly denied” being gay when the subject arose over the years.
Thomas developed a growing interest in firearms and shooting during his teenage years, although that fascination apparently did not extend to traditional outdoor activities. His father said Thomas briefly showed interest in hunting but that he could not picture his son actually killing an animal. Thomas also “hated” fishing.
Matthew said many of his conversations with Thomas during those years were short and centered on guns. At one point, his teenage son asked whether “he would have to do a background check” if he purchased Matthew’s Glock. His father later told investigators that he considered the question “odd.”
Thomas also asked about obtaining firearms that belonged to his grandfather.
Around the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, Thomas began visiting a gun club. Initially, according to his father, he was a “terrible” shooter — “he could not hit the paper [target].” Matthew estimated that it took his son four or five years of practice before his shooting improved significantly.
Over time, however, Thomas developed considerable skill. He began bringing targets home from the range to show his father how accurately he could shoot from distances exceeding 100 yards.
When Matthew asked why he was “going out so far,” Thomas told him “he wanted to see how far he could shoot with rudimentary sights.”
After purchasing a prism sight, Thomas began practicing at even greater distances. His father said he eventually became “very knowledgeable” about measuring distances and zeroing a firearm, learning precisely how many adjustments were necessary to alter the sight angle. Separate reporting on the newly disclosed federal records has also described Crooks’ increasing focus on long-distance shooting.
As his fascination with firearms intensified, Thomas began receiving numerous Amazon deliveries containing “parts, tools and items to increase the capacity of his rifle.”
He began addressing deliveries to the pseudonym “Bob Dole,” adopting the name after his father’s Citizens Bank checking account was hacked and fraudulent BetMGM transactions appeared on it.
Thomas apparently concluded that buying products under a false name — in this instance, that of the late Republican presidential candidate — would prevent someone from hacking the purchaser. Matthew tried to explain that using an assumed delivery name would make no difference because the payment would still be charged to a bank account bearing the account holder’s real identity.
Thomas rejected his father’s explanation and continued ordering products under pseudonyms, believing the practice provided protection against having his accounts compromised.
His interest in digital privacy extended further. Thomas showed his father how to use tools including CyberGhost VPN and the Bravenet Browser, arguing that they made users “less likely to be compromised by outside actors.”
Matthew also recalled that his son maintained accounts with several privacy-oriented encrypted email services, including GMX and Mailfence.
Around the same period, Thomas acquired a 3D printer. His father recalled him once arriving home with a large container holding an unidentified substance that Thomas said he needed to clean the printer.
Thomas also attempted to manufacture his own handgun, according to his father, an experiment Matthew said nearly went disastrously wrong.
“Using carbon fiber plastic, a dryer and a toaster oven, Thomas did once create a Glock 19,” Matthew told investigators.
After a single round was fired from the homemade weapon, Matthew became concerned that its frame could explode and refused to allow his son to fire it again.
Thomas’ technical interests went beyond firearms. He assembled his own gaming computer despite his father suggesting that a laptop would be more practical, and he constructed a security camera using a Raspberry Pi, a small and inexpensive computer.
When investigators asked who Thomas considered a role model, Matthew said the closest answer was probably the Marvel character Iron Man.
The newly disclosed records also depict Crooks’ political views as difficult to place neatly within one ideological camp. One person interviewed by investigators, whose identity was redacted, characterized Thomas as a “big history buff” who was “interested in politics,” although he generally discussed political matters in a “nonchalant” manner.
That individual recalled that Thomas “spoke often about Trump and [former President Joe] Biden back when Trump initially got elected,” including things he “liked and disliked” about Trump and other political figures. He also reportedly discussed Secretary of State Marco Rubio frequently.
Matthew gave investigators a similar account two days after the shooting, saying his son did not display particularly strong loyalty to either major political party. When political subjects came up at home, father and son would often end up “making fun of the politicians.”
“Thomas called himself a Republican. Thomas did not like the welfare state and was against the ‘woke’ ideology but never really espoused the Republican ideology,” Matthew said. According to his father, Thomas was more inclined to debate “government policies in a general sense.”
Matthew said his son “expressed shock” over the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol and “did not believe the 2020 presidential election was rigged.”
Crooks was registered as a Republican, although Matthew told investigators he thought his son had registered that way because Matthew himself was affiliated with the GOP. The father described himself as more critical of Trump’s policies than Thomas was and said he criticized both Trump and Biden.
Matthew was therefore surprised when he learned that his son had made a $15 contribution in 2021 to the Progressive Turnout Project, a Democratic-aligned voter-mobilization organization. The combination of Crooks’ registration, donation and statements described by his father has not produced evidence establishing a political motive for the assassination attempt. The FBI previously said it had not identified a motive or found evidence that Crooks had been directed by a foreign entity.
Thomas was also deeply interested in computer games during high school, playing “Grand Prix, strategic-style military confrontation and first-person shooter games.” After graduating, however, his enthusiasm faded, and he sometimes regretted the amount of time he had invested in building his gaming computer.
His entertainment interests included war and action movies. According to his father, he watched films including “Saving Private Ryan,” “Full Metal Jacket,” “Heartbreak Ridge,” “Anger Management” and the “John Wick” series.
His musical tastes changed as he grew older. Matthew said Thomas enjoyed rap and country music in elementary school but gravitated increasingly toward country music in high school. His father remembered that Thomas would sometimes dance by himself in his bedroom with the door shut.
Despite the behaviors and interests now described in detail in the FBI interviews, Matthew said the family did not view them at the time as warning signs that Thomas was preparing to commit violence.
Matthew told investigators that family members were “racking” their brains trying to understand why Thomas had decided to attempt to kill Trump, an attack that killed one rally attendee and seriously wounded two others in addition to injuring Trump.
Thomas “never showed any signs indicating something was wrong,” his father told investigators.
More than two years after the Butler shooting, the question at the center of the case therefore remains unanswered: what ultimately drove Crooks to climb onto the roof overlooking Trump’s rally and open fire? The FBI has publicly said that its investigation uncovered extensive evidence about Crooks’ activities and interests but did not establish a definitive motive.
