Trump rally shooter experienced ‘descent into madness,’ investigation reveals

A new report has shed light on the disturbing descent into madness experienced by 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, the gunman who attempted to assassinate President Donald Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania last summer. According to the New York Times, Crooks went through a gradual and hidden transformation from a meek engineering student critical of political polarization to a focused killer who tried to build bombs.

Rep. Clay Higgins, who served on a Congressional task force that investigated the shooting, described Crooks’ descent into madness as mysterious, noting that he was “having conversations with someone that wasn’t there.” This revelation came after Higgins learned about Crooks’ mental health during a trip to Pennsylvania to investigate the assassination attempt.

Prior to the shooting, Crooks had a clean record, with the only trouble being lunch detention in middle school for chewing gum. He excelled academically, scoring 1530 out of 1600 on the SAT and graduating from the Community College of Allegheny County with an engineering degree. He was preparing to transfer to Robert Morris University to pursue a career in aerospace or robotics.

However, Crooks’ father noticed a change in his son’s mental health in the year leading up to the shooting, with reports of Thomas talking to himself and exhibiting erratic behavior. This behavior aligned with a history of mental health and addiction struggles in Crooks’ family.

While in high school, Crooks was known for discussing topics like the economy and cryptocurrencies. At community college, he designed a chess board for the visually impaired, showing signs of intelligence and creativity. His engineering teacher, Trish Thompson, described him as a “really intelligent kid” who seemed capable of achieving anything.

In April 2023, Crooks wrote an essay advocating for ranked-choice voting in American politics, highlighting the need for a system that promotes kindness and cooperation. However, around the same time, he made multiple firearm-related purchases online using an alias, including gallons of nitromethane, a fuel additive used in explosives.

Crooks joined a local gun club in the summer of 2023 and began visiting news and gun websites, as well as the Trump administration’s archives. In the days leading up to the assassination attempt, his online searches became more focused on topics like the distance between Oswald and Kennedy, major depressive disorder, and depression crisis.

Despite his disturbing online activity and purchases, Crooks continued to show up for work as a dietary aide at a nursing and rehabilitation center. On the night of the shooting, ATF agents visited his home and discovered suspicious items, prompting an evacuation and further investigation.

The report also detailed interviews with Crooks’ parents, who claimed to have no knowledge of their son’s activities. The investigation into Thomas Matthew Crooks’ assassination attempt on President Donald Trump paints a chilling picture of a young man’s descent into madness, with tragic consequences.