FBI investigators are still trying to determine the motive for the attempt by a 20-year-old suspect to assassinate former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally Saturday in Butler, Pa.
And It’s quite possible that the assassination attempt wasn’t politically motivated at all.
Just consider the most recent assassination attempt on a president or presidential candidate in the U.S. On March 30, 1981, just weeks after Ronald Reagan’s inauguration. the president was shot and nearly killed as he was leaving a D.C. hotel.
The shooter, John Hinckley Jr., had become obsessed with the film “Taxi Driver” and its star, Jodie Foster, and said he tried to kill Reagan to impress the actress. Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity and spent decades in a mental hospital before the 67-year-old was released from court restrictions in 2022.
The suspect in Saturday’s shooting, identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks, of Bethel Park, Pa., was shot and killed by a Secret Service sniper just moments after he fired several shots from an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle that grazed Trump’s ear and killed one rallygoer and wounded two others.
ABC News reported Monday that an FBI technical specialist had gained access to the contents of Crooks’ phone, allowing investigators to analyze its contents. That might shed some light on Crooks’ motive.
A source told ABC New that on the day of the shooting, Crooks told his father he wanted to go to a shooting range and asked if he could borrow his dad's AR 15-style rifle. His father had occasionally allowed Crooks to go target shooting with the weapon.
But before the suspect was even identified, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, now Trump’s vice presidential pick, irresponsibly tweeted on Saturday night that he believed the Biden campaign’s rhetoric directly contributed to the attempted assassination.
Over the past few days, we’ve learned very little about Crooks’ political leanings. USA Today reported that state voter records show that he had been a registered Republican since 2021. An election donation filing showed that someone named Thomas Crooks had donated $15 in January 2021 through Act Blue to the Progressive Turnout Project, a group working to increase voter turnout for Democrats.
Hopefully, Act Blue can confirm the identity of the donor. It seems a bit incongruous that the suspect, then a high school junior, would donate $15 to a rather obscure group.
Some classmates at Bethel Park High School described Crooks, who graduated in 2022, as a loner who was frequently bullied and occasionally wore “hunting outfits to school,” according to BBC News, He graduated with high honors with an associated degree in engineering science in May 2024 from the Community College of Allegheny, and worked in the kitchen of a local nursing home.
But reports indicate that he did have an obsession with guns. Jameson Myers, a former member of the Bethel Park High School varsity rifle team, told CBS News that Crooks failed to make the team.
"He did not even make the junior varsity team after trying out," Myers said.
The BBC reported that Crooks had a membership at a local shooting club, the Clairton Sportsmen's Club, for at least a year.
And on Saturday, Crooks was wearing a T-shirt sold by “Demolition Ranch,” a popular YouTube Channel focused on firearms.
There was also something odd about Crooks’ behavior on Saturday because his movements were hardly stealthy.
Witnesses saw a man crawling along the roof at least 86 seconds before the first shots were fired and desperately tried to alert law enforcement officers, The Washington Post reported.
And Tom Knights, the Butler Township manager, said a local police officer climbed up the building and pulled himself up to confront the suspect. He said the man turned and pointed his gun at the officer who then in a defensive move, ducked, fell and lost his grip. Moments later the first shots were fired toward the stage where Trump was speaking,
And that raises the possibility that Crooks intended for himself to be shot dead by law enforcement officers. If there had not been security lapses at the Trump rally, it’s possible that Crooks might have been killed before getting off any shots. .
The American Psychiatry Association has identified a psychiatric phenomenon known as “suicide by cop” in which “a suicidal individual provokes a law enforcement officer into killing him or her.”
The FBI’s Law Enforcement Bulletin wrote this about “suicide by cop.”
Suicide by cop (SBC) is a situation where individuals deliberately place themselves or others at grave risk in a manner that compels the use of deadly force by police officers. There are many known SBC-specific risk factors, warning signs, and triggers.1 Individuals who feel trapped, ashamed, hopeless, desperate, revengeful, or enraged and those who are seeking notoriety, assuring lethality, saving face, sending a message, or evading moral responsibility often attempt SBC. In the field of suicide prevention, SBC has received little attention.
The Interpersonal Psychological Theory of Suicide (IPPT) indicates that a potentially fatal suicide attempt requires a strong desire to die and the capability for lethal self-harm. An attempt occurs only when both are present in an individual. The intense desire to die often comes from the belief that one is a burden to others or does not belong. A sense of burden can result when people feel they are a liability and have not fulfilled expectations. This leads to thinking that life has no value. Strong unmet needs for social relationships and the perception that no one cares produce feelings of failed belongingness.
For a suicide to occur, more than a desire to die is necessary; an individual also must be capable of ending life. The person must overcome fear, pain, and the instinct for self-preservation. This can result from abuse, trauma, or a history of violence and may be a byproduct of past attempts or mentally practicing a suicide plan.
FBI investigators will ultimately determine Crooks’ motive for the attack. But the Biden campaign should should push back against hypocritical MAGA Republicans who dare accuse Democrats of creating a political environment that encourages violence. Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris should go all out in warning that Trump is a threat to our democracy.