Thomas Matthew Crooks, the Pennsylvania man who killed one bystander and critically injured two others during his failed attempt to assassinate President Donald Trump, reportedly had no friends as a teenager and used the alias “Bob Dole” to receive suspicious packages. Federal documents reviewed by News Media also indicate that an anonymous donor later covered the cost of his cremation.
Records provided to the Senate suggest Crooks’ actions stunned his family, while investigators have yet to determine a clear motive for the July 2024 attack.
Crooks, 20, would generally pick up packages sent under the Dole alias before his father, who often worked late, returned home.
He was killed by law enforcement after firing on a Trump campaign rally in July 2024. According to the documents, a lawyer representing the family told investigators that Crooks was cremated soon afterward, with the expense paid by an unidentified donor.
Thomas Matthew Crooks, a 20-year-old from Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, tried to assassinate former President Donald Trump at a 2024 campaign rally before Secret Service agents shot and killed him. (Associated Press | News Media)
The documents were assembled during the investigation into the shooting at Trump’s Butler, Pennsylvania, rally. They include an interview with Crooks’ father, who told FBI agents that his son “never identified anyone as a friend throughout middle school and high school.”
During an interview with Crooks’ parents one day after the shooting, his father said his son spent time with classmates but maintained that they were not friends.
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