FBI identifies Trump rally shooter as Thomas Matthew Crooks
The FBI has identified the shooter in the attempted assassination of former US President Donald Trump as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks. He was killed at the scene.
Crooks opened fire during a Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on Saturday, wounding Trump and killing one spectator. Two other spectators were critically injured.
The shooter, a resident of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, was shot dead by Secret Service agents at the scene. US media report that he was a registered Republican voter. He is also said to have donated 15 dollars to a Democratic-leaning political action committee in 2021.
Crooks fired at Trump from the roof of a building just outside the rally venue. Trump was escorted off the stage, with blood visible around his right ear, and taken to hospital.
In a post on the Truth Social network, Trump later said that a bullet had pierced the upper part of his ear. The FBI is treating the case as an assassination attempt on Trump. The shooter's motives are still unknown.
© REBECCA DROKE / AFP
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