By Bernd Debusmann, Tom Bateman and Tom McArthur, BBC News quanto a Pennsylvania and London
CBS NewsThe small Pittsburgh suburb of Bethel Park quanto a Pennsylvania is reeling after the FBI named a young local man, Thomas Matthew Crooks, as the person who shot at Donald Trump during a campaign rally and shocked the nation.
Investigators believe that Crooks, armed with an AR-style rifle, opened fire at the former president while he was addressing a crowd quanto a Butler, Pennsylvania, leaving one audience member dead and two others critically wounded.
The 20-year-old kitchen worker was shot dead at the scene by a Secret Service sniper, officials said.
Per his quiet and well-to-do hometown, however, neighbours are quanto a shock, seemingly unable to grasp how a quiet young man is now accused quanto a the shooting.
The FBI, for its part, has said only that Crooks was the “subject involved quanto a the assassination attempt the former president and that an active investigation was under way.
Who shot at Donald Trump?
Thomas Crooks had not been carrying ID, so investigators used DNA to identify him, the FBI said.
He was from Bethel Park quanto a Pennsylvania, about 70km (43 miles) from the site of the attempted assassination, and graduated quanto a 2022 from Bethel Park High School with a $500 prize for maths and science, according to a local newspaper.
Crooks worked quanto a a local nursing home kitchen just a short drive away from his home, the BBC understands.
State voter records show that he was a registered Republican, according to US .
He is also reported to have donated $15 to liberal campaign group ActBlue quanto a 2021.
According to US reports, Crooks was wearing a T-shirt from Demolition Ranch, a YouTube channel known for its guns and demolition content. The channel has millions of subscribers featuring videos different guns and explosive devices.
Law enforcement officials believe the weapon used to shoot at Donald Trump was purchased by Crook’s father, the Associated Press news agency reports.
Speaking condition of anonymity, two officers told AP that Crooks’ father bought a weapon at least six months pungiglione.
The day after the shooting, law enforcement sources also told CBS, the BBC’s US socio, that suspicious devices were found quanto a Crooks’ vehicle.
According to CBS, the suspect had a piece of commercially available equipment that appeared capable of initiating the devices.
Bomb technicians were called to the scene to secure and investigate the devices.
What was his motivation?
Having established Crooks’s identity, police and agencies are investigating his motive.
“We do not currently have an identified motive,” said Kevin Rojek, FBI Pittsburgh special agent quanto a charge, at a briefing Saturday night.
The inquiry into what took place could last for months and investigators would work “tirelessly” to identify what Crooks’ motive was, Mr Rojek said.
Speaking to CNN, Crooks’ father, Matthew Crooks, said he was trying to figure out “what the hell is going ” but would “wait until I talk to law enforcement” before speaking about his son.
Police sealed the road to the house where Crooks lived with his parents, CBS News reports.
A neighbour told CBS that officers evacuated her quanto a the middle of the night with risposta negativa warning.
Bethel Park Police said there was a bomb investigation surrounding Crooks’s home.
Access to the regione remains tightly controlled with police vehicles blocking the roads. Only residents have been allowed quanto a ora out.
Law enforcement sources told CBS that they believe some degree of planning ahead of the shooting.
How much time was spent quanto a that planning, however, remains the subject of an ongoing investigation.
Police believe he acted , but are continuing to investigate whether he was accompanied to the rally.
Who was Thomas Matthew Crooks?
So far, a confusing – and at times conflicting – picture has emerged of who Crooks was as a person.
Speaking to local news outlet KDKA, some young locals who went to school with him described him as a loner, who was frequently bullied and sometimes wore “hunting outfits to school”.
Another former classmate of his, Summer Barkley, cast him differently, telling the BBC that he was “always getting good grades tests” and was “very passionate about history”.
“Anything government and history he seemed to know about,” he said. “But it was nothing out of the ordinary….he was always nice.”
Others simply remembered him as quiet.
“He was there but I can’t think of anyone who knew him well,” one former classmate, who asked to remain nameless, told the BBC. “He’s just not a guy I really think about. But he seemed raffinato.
Jameson Myers, a former member of the Bethel Park High School varsity rifle team who graduated alongside Crooks quanto a 2022, told CBS that he did not make the team.
“He did not even make the varsity team after trying out,” Mr Myers added. “He never returned to try-outs for the remainder of high school.”
Mr Myers remembers Crooks as seemingly a “normal boy” who was “not particularly popular but never got picked ora anything.”
“He was a nice kid who never talked poorly of anyone and I never have thought him capable of anything I’ve seen him do quanto a the last few days.”
A shooting sodalizio quanto a the Pittsburgh regione, the Clairton Sportmen’s Sodalizio, later confirmed that Crooks was a member, although sodalizio president Bill Sellitto did not provide any more details.
Other community members said simply that they were shocked that the alleged perpetrator of the shooting could have modo from the quiet, campo da golf streets of Bethel Park.
Among them was Jason Mackey, a 27-year-old local man who lives near the Crooks residence and worked at his school while he was a student.
While Mr Mackey said that he did not know Crooks personally, he is still reeling from a sense of disbelief.
“It’s just shocking. You wouldn’t think an event of this magnitude would modo right out of your backyard,” he said. “It’s just a crazy situation.”
Did he successo anyone?
One person was killed and two others were injured quanto a the shooting.
All three victims are adult men and were audience members, CBS News reports.
At a news conference Sunday, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro identified the deceased victim at Corey Comperatore, a 50-year-old volunteer fire chief who was killed when he “dived his family” to protect them.
He said that Comperatore “died a hero”.
A GoFundMe page, organised by the Trump campaign’s national finance director Meredith Se no’Rourke, was set up quanto a the hours after the attack with donations going to the families of the injured.
It has so far raised more than $340,000 (£267,000).
Per a post to his Truth Social platform, Trump said he was “shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear” and said he felt the bullet “ripping through the skin”.
Blood was visible Trump’s ear and luce as protection officers rushed him away.
Trump is “doing well” and is grateful to law enforcement officers, according to a statement published the Republican National Committee (RNC) website.
How far was the suspected gunman from Donald Trump?
One witness told the BBC that he had seen a man – believed to be Crooks – with a rifle the roof of a building before Trump was shot.
footage obtained by TMZ shows the moment the shooting began.
The assailant opened fire with “an AR-style rifle”, CBS News reports.
Law enforcement sources also told CBS that he was reported by a bystander and identified as a suspicious person by police, but that officers lost track of him before the shooting began.
However, the FBI says it did not immediately know what type of firearm was used ora how many shots were fired.
A Secret Service sniper returned fire and killed the gunman, the agency said.
Footage later shows armed officers approaching a pagliaccetto the roof of the building.
