CNN
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In the 48 hours before he opened fire on former President Donald Trump, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks made a series of stops in and around his suburban Pittsburgh hometown.
On Friday, he went to a gun range he was a member of and practiced shooting, a law enforcement official told CNN. The next morning, Crooks went to a Home Depot, where he bought a 5-foot ladder, and to a gun store, where he bought 50 rounds of ammunition, the official said.
Crooks then drove his Hyundai Sonata about an hour north, joining thousands of people from the region who had flocked to Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. He parked the car outside the rally, with an improvised explosive device hidden in the trunk and wired to a radio he was carrying, the official said. Then, investigators believe, he used his newly purchased ladder to scale a nearby building and opened fire on the former president.
As investigators continue to search for a motive behind the attempted murder, they are studying Crooks’ movements prior to the attack and attempting to piece together a timeline of his actions leading up to the attack.
Still, nearly 48 hours after the shooting, investigators are struck by the lack of clues they’re finding about Crooks’ thinking and possible motives. Even after successfully hacking into his phone and searching his computer, combing through his search history and bedroom, and interviewing his family and friends, officers have found no evidence that would point to a political or ideological motive for the shooting, law enforcement sources told CNN.
Instead, the evidence they found appears to point to typical online activities, including an interest in computer programming and gaming, the sources said, raising even more questions.
In a sign that his attack could have been even more devastating, Crooks was carrying a remote detonator and had a metal box containing explosives in the trunk of his car, wired to a receiver, the law enforcement source said.
That suggests the shooter may have been planning to remotely detonate an explosion. Investigators are considering the theory that he may have been planning a diversion during the shooting.
It is unclear how Crooks assembled the explosives in his car. Investigators who searched his online search history found no evidence that he was researching how to make homemade explosives, law enforcement officials said.
The AR-style rifle Crooks used to shoot Trump was legally purchased by his father, Matthew Crooks. It was one of more than 20 firearms registered to the elder Crooks and kept in the family home, the official said in Pennsylvania State Police documents reviewed by investigators. All of the weapons were legally purchased.
The gunman and his father were members of the Clairton Sportsmen’s Club, a shooting club about a 25-minute drive from his home, and enjoyed shooting together, law enforcement officials said. Rob Bootay, an attorney for the club, confirmed in a statement that the younger Crooks was a member.
The club, which has about 2,000 members, has a shooting range that’s about 650 feet long, according to a CNN analysis of satellite imagery — longer than the distance between Crooks and Trump when he shot the former president as he sat on a nearby rooftop. The range is tucked into 450 acres of wooded hills south of Pittsburgh.
“The Club fully condemns the senseless act of violence that occurred,” Bootay said, adding that he “could not provide any additional comment regarding this matter in light of the ongoing investigations by law enforcement.”
Crooks bought the 50 rounds of ammunition the morning of the attack at Allegheny Arms and Gun Works, a local gun shop in his hometown of Bethel Park, a senior law enforcement official told CNN. Bruce Piendl, the store’s owner, said in a statement that “we are thankful that President Trump was not assassinated and our hearts and prayers go out to all the victims of this terrible incident.”
A spokesperson for Home Depot, where Crooks bought the ladder, said in a statement that “we condemn the violence against former President Trump, and our thoughts are with him, the other victims of Saturday’s horrific events, and their families.”
It is unclear whether Crooks used the ammunition or the ladder he purchased on Saturday in his attack later that day.
Rebecca Droke/AFP/Getty Images
Police blocked roads around the home of Thomas Matthew Crooks in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, on Monday as the FBI continues its investigation into the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump.
Matthew Crooks did not respond to CNN’s requests for comment on Sunday and Monday. On Saturday night, before officials publicly confirmed his son’s role in the attack, he told CNN he was trying to figure out “what the hell is going on” but that he was “waiting until I talk to law enforcement” before talking about his son.
FBI investigators have gained access to the younger Crooks’ cellphone, the agency said Monday afternoon. While investigators had hoped the breakthrough would help them understand what drove him to kill Trump, they are still struggling to make sense of it, law enforcement officials said.
The gunman’s parents, who have been cooperating with police since the shooting, told investigators that Crooks appeared to have no friends and no political leanings, a law enforcement official told CNN. But they didn’t seem to know much about what was going on in his life recently, law enforcement sources said.
CNN’s Isabelle Chapman, Majlie de Puy Kamp, Curt Devine, Kyung Lah, Jamiel Lynch, Gianluca Mezzofiore and Anna-Maja Rappard contributed reporting.