FBI Identifies Gunman in Shooting at Trump Rally


The FBI identified the shooter, who is dead, as Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania. A motive was not clear.
The FBI said the shooter, who is dead, was identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania. A motive was not clear.

The gunman was immediately “neutralized” by the Secret Service, chief of communications Anthony Guglielmi said.

Crooks used a semi-automatic rifle, three senior U.S. law enforcement officials said, based on what was found at the scene.

Bethel Park is a predominantly white, relatively well-to-do city in the southern reaches of greater Pittsburgh. The site of the rally, Butler, is about an hour’s drive north of Pittsburgh.

Pennsylvania voter records listed a Thomas Matthew Crooks with the same address and birth date as a registered Republican, though it was not clear from the records when that was put in place.

At a news conference Saturday night, law enforcement said the investigation was close to making a positive identification of the shooter, who did not have identification on him, state police Lt. Col. George Bivens said.