Trump Shooter Crooks Asked Google About JFK’s Distance, Talked to Imaginary People Prior to Assassination Attempt

New information has emerged about Thomas Matthew Crooks, the 20-year-old who attempted to assassinate President Donald Trump during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, 2024.

A new report from The New York Times outlines disturbing behavioral changes and online activity that preceded the shooting.

According to the report, Crooks had been exhibiting signs of a deteriorating mental state for nearly a year before the assassination attempt.

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His father told federal investigators that his son had been speaking to himself, dancing alone in his bedroom, and appeared to be detached from reality. He also mentioned a family history of mental illness.

Thomas Crooks ‘talked to himself’, was ‘mentally unravelling’, in weeks before attempting to kill Donald Trump: Report

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Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.), who has been part of the congressional task force investigating the shooting, told the Times, “There was a mysteriousness to Thomas Crooks’ descent into madness.”

Higgins said Crooks was “having conversations with someone that wasn’t there” in the days leading up to the assassination attempt.

Investigators found that Crooks had made troubling internet searches just a week before the incident.

One of the searches reportedly included, “How far was Oswald from Kennedy?” — a reference to the distance between Lee Harvey Oswald and President John F. Kennedy during the 1963 assassination in Dallas.

Crooks used a rooftop perch during the July 13 rally to fire several rounds toward President Trump. One bullet grazed Trump’s ear, while another fatally struck a rally attendee. Crooks was killed on the spot by a Secret Service counter-sniper.

Law enforcement found Crooks’ body on the rooftop, surrounded by blood. In the days since, investigators have been working to determine a motive, though his political affiliations appear inconsistent.

According to federal interviews and records, Crooks had previously donated $15 to a Democratic fundraising committee on the day of President Joe Biden’s inauguration in 2021. However, when he turned 19 that fall, he registered as a Republican.

His father told investigators that Crooks would often talk about both Trump and Biden, but “never really indicated that he liked one or the other more.”

Agents noted that in the weeks before the shooting, Crooks increased his online searches about Trump and began researching firearms and ammunition more frequently.

Authorities continue to analyze Crooks’ digital footprint and background in hopes of fully understanding what led to the attempted assassination of a sitting U.S. president.

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