New federal documents are shedding light on the private life of Thomas Matthew Crooks, the individual who opened fire at a President Donald Trump campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July 2024. The incident resulted in the death of one rally attendee and injuries to two others before law enforcement officers fatally shot Crooks at the scene. More than a year after the attack, these records offer a glimpse into the isolation and secrecy that characterized Crooks's final years, though a clear motive for his actions remains elusive.
"never identified anyone as a friend throughout middle school and high school." Matthew Crooks, Father of Thomas Matthew Crooks
The trove of federal records, obtained by the New York Post and independently reviewed by Fox News Digital, was quietly delivered to Senator Chuck Grassley months ago, in March. The contents of these documents were deemed significant enough that President Trump himself received a personal briefing on their revelations.
Among the most unusual details uncovered is Crooks's use of a false identity. Investigators discovered that Crooks had been ordering packages under the alias "Bob Dole," meticulously timing their pickup from his doorstep to ensure his father, Matthew Crooks, would not intercept them after returning from work. This alias was not arbitrary; it reportedly stemmed from a cyberattack that targeted his father's bank account, resulting in fraudulent gambling charges. This breach appears to have prompted the younger Crooks to adopt a separate identity.
According to his father's account to investigators, isolation significantly defined Crooks's adolescence. In an interview conducted just one day after the shooting, Matthew Crooks told agents that his son "never identified anyone as a friend throughout middle school and high school." Despite participating in typical teenage social interactions, Crooks maintained a stark distinction between acquaintances and genuine friendships, remaining fundamentally disconnected from those around him.
Subtler warning signs also emerged in the months leading up to the rally. Crooks's father observed him speaking aloud to himself, a detail he later shared with investigators. Notably, Matthew Crooks himself worked in the mental health field, yet he informed agents that he did not observe additional behaviors indicative of a specific mental illness in his son.
Academically, Thomas Crooks was highly accomplished. His father described him as a straight-A student, capable of scoring a 1400 on the SAT without prior study. Later, motivated to improve, he dedicated himself to studying and achieved a score exceeding 1500 on a retake. However, beneath this academic success lay significant anxiety. His father reported that Crooks was consumed by fear that his grades and scores would still be insufficient to gain admission to college. This worry coincided with a broader shift in his personality, beginning between his freshman and sophomore years of high school, when he transitioned from being more outgoing to becoming withdrawn. Conversations with teachers also became noticeably more challenging for him, a change his father specifically highlighted to federal investigators.
Amid his increasing withdrawal, Crooks briefly considered a career in the military, specifically expressing interest in working aboard nuclear submarines. However, investigators who reviewed this claim noted that the seriousness of his intent to pursue this path was never clear.
The aftermath of the shooting brought its own unusual circumstances. A family attorney informed investigators that Crooks's body was cremated shortly after his death. The cost of the cremation was reportedly covered not by his family, but by an anonymous donor whose identity has never been disclosed. The lives of Crooks's parents were immediately upended by the attack. Matthew Crooks took early retirement from his career, and his mother, Mary Crooks, took a leave of absence from her job as they grappled with the profound implications of their son's actions.
These documents form a crucial part of the extensive federal investigation into the Butler rally shooting, an event that has remained under intense scrutiny from Congress and security officials since its occurrence. While the records paint a detailed portrait of a socially isolated, academically gifted young man leading a hidden double life under a stolen identity, investigators acknowledge that even with these new details, they are no closer to understanding the ultimate motivation that drove him to pull the trigger.
