![Thomas Matthew Crooks' Bethel Park High School classmates described him as an intelligent student with few friends](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/en-us/news/2024/07/15/TELEMMGLPICT000385628408_17210424228240_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqAUyH1_oWTXRqZQsivxaudTXaG_3FkRG2WH2SGzlVXbs.jpeg?imwidth=680)
Trump shooter bought 50 rounds of ammunition on the day
It emerges that Thomas Matthew Crooks travelled to a local gun store hours before clambering onto a rooftop to aim at former president
![Thomas Matthew Crooks' Bethel Park High School classmates described him as an intelligent student with few friends](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/en-us/news/2024/07/15/TELEMMGLPICT000385628408_17210424228240_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqAUyH1_oWTXRqZQsivxaudTXaG_3FkRG2WH2SGzlVXbs.jpeg?imwidth=680)
The gunman who opened fire on Donald Trump purchased 50 rounds of ammunition on the day of the shooting as it also emerged his father owned more than 20 firearms.
Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, was identified by the FBI as the man who tried to assassinate the former president at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday evening.
He had travelled to a local gun store hours before clambering onto a rooftop on the edge of the Butler Farm Show Grounds and opening fire on the former president minutes into a speech.
The federal investigators said he had used an AR-15-style rifle, one of the many guns legally purchased by his father, CNN reported.
Former classmates of Crooks’ revealed he had been rejected from his school’s rifle club because of his poor aim.
Crooks was shot and killed by Secret Service agents moments after he began firing, injuring Mr Trump, killing a spectator and seriously wounding two more.
Classmates at Bethel Park High, where the shooter graduated from in 2022, described him as an intelligent student with few friends.
He liked to play chess and video games and was learning computer coding.
Many of the details surrounding Crooks’ life and his potential motives remain unclear to investigators.
FBI officials have said they are treating the incident as a possible case of domestic terrorism as the shooter had left explosive materials in the vehicle he drove to the event.
Investigators found a transmitter on the gunman’s lifeless body, CNN reported, citing an anonymous source.
Further examinations of Crooks’ vehicle revealed a receiver with wires connected to a metal box, possibly loaded with explosives, in the boot of his Hyundai Sudan.
They are looking into whether the device could have been remote controlled and part of the failed assassination plot.
One theory being pondered is whether the shooter could have detonated the device to distract and draw security personnel away from his firing position.
Jameson Myers, who attended both elementary and high school with the suspect, said Crooks had attended trials for their school’s rifle team, but had been asked not to return after “preseason”.
“He didn’t just not make the team, he was asked not to come back because of how bad of a shot he was, it was considered like, dangerous,” Mr Myers told ABC News.
An anonymous member of the team, cited in the report by ABC, said Crooks “wasn’t really fit for the rifle team”.
They added: “He also shot terrible.”
Crooks’ former classmates largely described him as an intelligent but quiet student.
Mr Myers said he was a “nice kid who never talked poorly of anyone”, adding: “I never have thought him capable of anything I’ve seen him do in the last few days.
“When I did speak with him, he just seemed like a normal boy who was not particularly popular but never got picked on or anything.”
Another classmate, Summer Barkley, told CBS Pittsburgh that Crooks was a good student beloved by his teachers.
Mark Sigafoos, who graduated with Crooks, said: “This is one of the things that is being misconstrued – he was not some type of loner trench coat wearer.
“He was definitely nerdy, for sure, but he never gave off that he was creepy or like a school shooter.
“He seemed like he wouldn’t hurt a fly.”
![Secret service agents rush a bloodied Trump off the stage following the shooting](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/en-us/news/2024/07/15/TELEMMGLPICT000385522872_17210378758400_trans_NvBQzQNjv4Bqvxig_go-nndg4gfA2VqsCq1UDbDdk-JPjedL466dDsg.jpeg?imwidth=350)
However, one classmate, cited in a report by the Wall Street Journal, said Crooks would sometimes wear camouflage or hunting attire.
“If someone would say something to his face he would just kind of stare at them,” Julianna Grooms, who graduated one year after Crooks, said.
“People would say he was the student who would shoot up high school.”
Investigators have not unearthed a manifesto or any evidence that the suspect had strongly held political beliefs.
There are no signs of him having accounts on the popular social media networks Facebook or Instagram.
He did have an account on the online Discord messaging platform, but the firm said it was “rarely utilised and we have found no evidence that it was used to plan this incident or discuss his political views”.
The nursing home where Crooks worked said its staff had no reason for “concern” over their former colleague.
He was a registered Republican but had also donated to a progressive cause in 2021. His parents were registered as a Democrat and Libertarian.