Bethel Park, Pa. — The road leading into Bethel Park, where former president Donald Trump’s would-be assassin lived, is decorated with American flags, “Trump/Pence” signs, “Trump 2024: No More Bullsh**” banners, and “Bethel Park salutes” posters. On almost every corner in town hangs a military banner, part of a program the municipality started to pay tribute to community members who served in the Armed Forces. The town displays banners of local heroes from Memorial Day to Veterans Day each year, among them Leo John Kelly, who was killed in action in Vietnam, and Sgt. Russell A. Kurtz, who was killed in Iraq after enlisting as a senior in high school. The same banners and Trump signs can be seen in Thomas Matthew Crooks’s neighborhood.
Crooks, 20, fired at Trump, striking him in the ear, and killed a man and wounded two others before being gunned down by Secret Service at Saturday’s rally in Butler, located north of Bethel Park. FBI officers and local police have canvassed Crooks’s neighborhood thoroughly — some neighbors were asked to evacuate their homes for more than a day as a result of the investigation. On Monday, the FBI was still canvassing neighbors, asking questions of community members on streets adjacent to the Crooks family home.
The community was in shock, some told National Review, and the barrage of attention to hit the small Pennsylvania town since last weekend has been “surreal.”
Speaking of the would-be assassin, President Joe Biden urged America not to “make assumptions about his motives or his affiliations.” Crooks’s motives are still a mystery, days after his attack; police believe he acted alone. Some of his neighbors, former classmates, and other members of the community describe him as quiet and nice, and others say they didn’t know him well enough to say otherwise. Some describe him vaguely as weird but don’t elaborate, and when asked what his potential motive could have been, many can’t even speculate. One of Crooks’s former counselors at Bethel Park High School, Jim Knapp, told NBC that the shooter was a “quiet young man, an intelligent young man, but he did keep to himself,” and added that he was a “very good student.” Crooks, a county-confirmed registered Republican, wasn’t included in his high school yearbook in 2021; it appears he declined to take a school photo.
The victims of Saturday’s attack include a volunteer firefighter, Corey Comperatore, 50, who was shot and killed as he dove on his family to shield them from bullets, and Marine veteran David Dutch, 57, and James Copenhaver, 74, who are alive and now listed in stable condition.
In the 24 hours before he tried to assassinate Trump, Crooks visited the Clairton Sportsmen’s Club to practice firing shots, bought 50 rounds of ammunition at Allegheny Arms and Gun Works, and bought a five-foot ladder at a local Home Depot. He then drove about an hour away to Butler on Saturday, where he scaled a building and shot at Trump.
Clairton’s entrance is adorned with an American flag. On the final day of his life, Crooks must have passed the posters dedicated to the memories of men and women of Bethel Park who served America and whose families resided near Crooks. His last sight, other than the former president, might have been the massive American flag hung by Pennsylvanians at Trump’s rally, which until yesterday flew over the site of the botched assassination attempt.