(Ken Silva, Headline USA) The Wall Street Journal has reported that law enforcement found explosives in the car of Thomas Matthew Crooks, who’s suspected of being the gunman who tried assassinating presidential frontrunner Donald Trump.
Crooks’s car was reportedly parked near the Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
According to WSJ, police received multiple reports of suspicious packages around the shooter’s vicinity, prompting them to dispatch bomb technicians.
Officials reportedly worked well into the night to secure the crime scene before searching Crooks’ family home.
Crooks appeared to live with his parents, Matt and Mary Crooks, and may have had an older sister, Katherine, according to online records. The parents are reportedly “professional counselors.”
CNN identified the shooter’s father as Matthew Crooks.
I just verified that Matthew Crooks lives at the same address as his now-deceased son, along with his wife Mary Crooks, the shooter’s mother.
Both are professional counselors in Pennsylvania.
Interesting, to say the… pic.twitter.com/qRyes8A0DF
— Sara Gonzales (@SaraGonzalesTX) July 14, 2024
An AR-style rifle, purchased by the gunman’s father, was found at his home, according to the Journal.
Many of the details about Crooks and his possible motives remained unclear. But Headline USA was able to verify according to records at the Federal Election Commission, that Crooks was previously donated money to a radical leftist organization, the Progressive Turnout Project, in 2021.
Trump was escorted off the stage pumping his fist to signal to the crowd that he was OK but with blood visibly over his right ear, which he had grabbed before dropping to the ground as a series of percussive noises like shots sounded and smoke was reported as well.
The FBI and Secret Service are reportedly investigating the incident.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
