Despite the fact that they’ve already cracked his phone and searched his personal computer, federal law enforcement officials claim to be no closer to understanding the 20-year-old who took aim at former President Donald Trump than they were the day of the shooting.
Thomas Matthew Crooks, who opened fire on Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on Saturday, is alleged to have left little in the way of a digital trail. For some reason, he seems to have been the only member of Gen-Z who doesn’t have a dozen different social media profiles. The scant clues that investigators have accrued about Crooks’ online activity don’t do much to help us understand who he was or why he did what he did. That said, the government has released a few more details during the last few days.
CNN reports that FBI and U.S. Secret Service officials briefed members of Congress on Wednesday with new information about Crooks. A readout provided to legislators summarizes the “scope” of the current probes and provides previously undisclosed details about the alleged shooter’s online activities. Those activities included research into numerous upcoming political rallies, both for Trump and for President Biden, as well as for other “well-known political figures and political events.” For instance, CNN writes that three days before the fateful Trump rally, Crooks also researched the date and location of the Democratic National Convention, which will occur next month in Chicago.
Earlier this year, Crooks had also searched for information about major depressive disorder and seemed to seek out resources related to depressive crisis treatment, the outlet reports.
Most interestingly, CNN writes that, on his primary cellphone, Crooks had a copy of the arrest photo of Ethan Crumbley, a school shooter who shot four classmates in Michigan in 2021. Crumbely survived the shooting and was sentenced to life in prison. In a historic legal development, Crumbley’s parents were also charged with “negligence” in relation to the incident.
The last search on his phone, according to a new report from The Daily Beast, was porn.
So…that’s not super helpful. A guy who wants to kill people researches other killers and watches one last dirty video on his way out. That said, Crooks is also known to have had two cell phones. While one phone has been cracked (this one is reported to be a “newer Samsung” running Android), nothing much has been said about the contents of that other cell phone. It’s unclear whether police have investigated that second device or what its contents entail.
Investigators “remain puzzled about possible motives for Saturday’s attempted assassination of the former president, finding little to point to political or ideological intentions for the attack,” CNN reports. However, those same officials have also weirdly claimed that he may have been “looking to carry out a mass shooting and that the Trump event’s proximity and timing offered the most ready opportunity.” It’s difficult to see how police arrived at this conclusion. Most mass shooters seem to target large, poorly protected areas, like schools, churches, or shopping centers. A political rally, with its swarms of cops and police snipers, doesn’t exactly seem like an easy target for someone looking to kill a lot of people.
There have been plenty of oddities surrounding the Trump shooting for conspiracy theorists to go bananas over. As is the case with a lot of shootings, it seems unlikely that we will see a satisfying explanation anytime soon.
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