The FBI named the man who shot Donald Trump as Thomas Matthew Crooks, a 20-year-old registered Republican from Pennsylvania.
Crooks was reportedly wearing a t-shirt bearing the emblem of a pro-gun YouTube channel when he was killed by a special forces sniper on Saturday after firing three shots at the former US president.
One shot grazed Trump’s ear, spraying blood across his face. A man sitting behind Trump was shot and killed and two others were seriously injured.
The FBI said it believed Crooks was making an “assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump.”
“This is an active and ongoing investigation,” he said.
Suspects in home raid
Reports said armed US security agents raided Crooks’ home in Bethel Park on the outskirts of Pittsburgh, about an hour south of Butler, the small, tough post-industrial town where he tried to kill Trump.
The FBI said Crooks was not carrying any identification when he committed the murder and would have to be identified using DNA samples.
“We have not identified a motive at this time, although our investigators are working diligently to try to identify what led to that motive,” said Kevin Rojek, FBI Pittsburgh special agent.
Recovered AR-15 semi-automatic rifle
Crooks shot at Trump from the roof of a hut outside the security guard that was thrown up throughout the rally in a park in the center of Butler at around 6.15pm local time, shortly after the former US president began to speak.
Witnesses said Crooks was “sneaking in” across a roof less than 100m from Trump, the Republican presidential candidate. They said Crooks then spent two to three minutes settling himself, before taking aim and shooting at Trump.
US security forces said they had recovered an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle located on Crook’s body. AR-15 semi-automatic rifles have been used in several mass shootings in the United States and are now the focus of the gun debate.
Photos also showed a member of the US security forces standing over Crooks’ body. Crooks was wearing beige cargo-style shorts and a gray T-shirt bearing the logo of a pro-gun YouTube channel called Demolition Ranch.
Registered Republican
Unconfirmed videos and photos on the internet showed Crooks to be a tall, thin, bespectacled man with long sandy brown hair.
Voter registration data showed Crooks was a registered Republican voter but on January 20, 2021, two weeks after pro-Trump alt-Right supporters stormed the White House, Crooks gave $15 to a grassroots Democratic group.
Crooks did not have a criminal record. A video showing him wearing a black gown as he graduates from Bethel Park High School in 2022 has been circulating on social media.
The Telegraph was unable to verify the footage.
Crook’s father told CNN he wanted to know “what the hell” was going on but would talk to law enforcement before talking about his son.
Open source intelligence analysts reported that Crooks did not appear to be using mainstream social media channels such as Facebook or Instagram and that the internet footprint was almost negligible, which is highly unusual for a 20-year-old. Instead, analysts said Crooks corresponded with friends and associates on the Discord server they now wanted access to.
Discord servers are fenced off restricted parts of the internet. Gaming groups and communities often use them as secure chat rooms but are also used by fringe organizations to push their ideologies and discuss wild conspiracy theories and plots.
Popular pro-gun channel
The YouTube Demolition Farm is one of the most popular pro-gun channels in the US. It has nearly 12 million subscribers and is a mix of instructional videos of clients learning to shoot at the Demolition Ranch range in Texas and middle-aged men glancing at sniper rifles.
One website that sells Demolition Ranch t-shirts, including the one Crooks was wearing, said people wore it as a “testament to the fun, educational and supportive nature” of the channel. Anyone can buy Demolition Farm merchandise.
“This shirt is more than clothing; it is a statement of unity and a shared passion for firearms and the Second Amendment,” said the website that sells the shirts.
The Second Amendment is the clause in the US constitution that allows people to bear arms and is the focus of the furious debate.
The Demolition Farm channel stars Matt Carriker, a 38-year-old father of three and trained vet, known for rescuing stray and injured cats and dogs.
His personal Instagram account has 1.4 million subscribers and is filled with more photos of guns and cars, as well as family pictures from ski vacations and marathon training. The account does not appear to have any political slogans.
Mr Carriker reposted the photo of members of the US security forces standing over Crooks’ dead body, wearing the gray demolition farm t-shirt.
“What the hell?” he wrote under the photo.