FBI Gains Access to Gunman's Phone

UPDATE Jul 16, 2024 1:30 AM CDT

The FBI has gained access to the phone belonging to the 20-year-old who opened fire on a Trump rally Saturday, according to a statement issued by the bureau Monday. "FBI technical specialists successfully gained access to Thomas Matthew Crooks' phone, and they continue to analyze his electronic devices," the statement says. It offered several more updates: "The search of the subject's residence and vehicle are complete. The FBI has conducted nearly 100 interviews of law enforcement personnel, event attendees, and other witnesses. That work continues. The FBI has received hundreds of digital media tips which include photos and videos taken at the scene, and we continue to review incoming tips."

Jul 15, 2024 8:39 AM CDT

As of Monday morning, authorities were working under the assumption that Thomas Matthew Crooks acted alone when he tried to kill Donald Trump over the weekend, reports the New York Times. But the 20-year-old's motive remains elusive because he does not appear to have left behind any online writings about his actions—or at least any that have been discovered yet.

• Authorities are still working to get into Crooks' phone, which has been sent to FBI experts in Quantico, Virginia, report the AP and the Washington Post. Crooks appears to have had an account on the Discord chat platform, but he does not appear to have used it much of late.

• Crooks used an AR-15-style semiautomatic weapon that had been purchased by his father, and it remains unclear whether he took the gun without permission, per the Times. Authorities also say they found a "rudimentary" explosive device in his vehicle and possible explosives at his residence.
• Crooks worked as a dietary aide at Bethel Park Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, and the administrator there says he "performed his job without concern, and his background check was clean," per the Washington Post. Crooks lived in Bethel Park, a suburb of Pittsburgh about 40 miles from Trump's rally in Butler.
• As has been widely reported, Crooks was a registered Republican, but he also donated to a liberal get-out-the-vote group. High school classmates remember him as a good math student who was quiet and polite, per the Post and the BBC. On the day of the shooting, he was a wearing a Demolition Ranch T-shirt, referring to a popular YouTube channel featuring weapons and explosives, per Newsweek.
• "We are investigating this as an assassination attempt but also looking at it as a potential domestic terrorism attack," senior FBI official Robert Wells said.

(More Trump rally shooting stories.)