Thomas Crooks’ phone has offered federal investigators no clear explanations about why the 20-year-old from suburban Pittsburgh tried to assassinate former President Donald Trump, law enforcement sources told The Post.
Investigators have now turned their attention to the shooter’s laptop in the hopes of uncovering clues about his motive — a question that has proven still elusive two days after the shooting that rocked the nation.
Investigators have been able to piece together some clues about Crooks’ movements in before the shooting at 6:11 p.m. on Saturday in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Earlier in the day, he bought 50 rounds of ammunition from Allegheny Arms & Gun Works and a metal ladder from Home Depot, which he used to climb to the roof of a factory with a clear sight-line to Trump’s podium, sources said.
Sources said the AR-style assault rifle Crooks used belonged to his father — Matthew Brian Crooks, a licensed counselor who registered to vote as a Libertarian.
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The dad called police sometime Saturday to report that his son was missing — along with one of the roughly 20 guns he owned and kept in their modest suburban home in Bethel Park, about 25 minutes south of Pittsburgh, according to sources.
Meanwhile, Jim Knapp, who retired from his job as the school counselor at Bethel Park High School in 2022, said Crooks had always been “quiet as a churchmouse,” “respectful” and kept to himself, although he did have a few friends.
He rarely came across Crooks because “he wasn’t a needy type kid,” Knapp said. Crooks was content to occasionally eat lunch by himself in the school cafeteria, said Knapp, who would engage such students to see if they wanted company.
“Kids weren’t calling him names, kids weren’t bullying him,” Knapp said.
Knapp said he never knew Crooks to be political in any way, even as other kids would sometimes wear Trump or Biden attire. He added that he couldn’t recall Crooks ever being disciplined in school.
“Anybody could snap, anybody could have issues,” he said. “Something triggered that young man and drove him to drive up to Butler yesterday and do what he did.”
Investigators were seen questioning Crooks’ parents on Monday, and also reaching out to neighbors on their quiet street.
One neighbor, 38-year-old Kelly Little, told The Post she didn’t have much to offer investigators – but said she learned that Crooks had an older sister named Katherine.
Crooks, who graduated from Bethel Park High School in 2022, had no apparent political leanings while he was in school, according to his school counselor Jim Knapp, who described the boy as “quiet as a churchmouse.”
“Kids weren’t calling him names, kids weren’t bullying him,” Knapp said, recalling him as somebody content to be a loner.
“Anybody could snap, anybody could have issues,” the counselor said, adding that he was baffled about what might have caused it.
“Something triggered that young man and drove him to drive up to Butler yesterday and do what he did.”
— With Post wires