Thomas Matthew Crooks

About

Thomas Matthew Crooks was the shooter responsible for the 2024 Donald Trump Assassination Attempt on July 13th ahead of the 2024 Presidential Election. Crooks shot and injured former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania using an AR-15 rifle aimed from a nearby rooftop. Crooks also fatally shot an attendee named Corey Comperatore and injured two others before he was killed by the Secret Service. Crooks was notably seen wearing a Demolition Ranch shirt at the time of the assassination attempt, which is merch from a YouTube channel dedicated to firearms and explosives. A 2022 BlackRock commercial briefly featuring Crooks made the rounds in the aftermath of the shooting and was eventually pulled from circulation by the investment company. Following the incident and Crooks's identity being revealed, some internet users shared memes expressing joy about Trump's would-be assassin being an "apolitical cisgender white male," while X user @jewgazing's photos were shared by people who mistook him for Crooks. On 4chan, the nickname "Ree Tardy Oswald" began gaining traction. Other memes, discussions, and posts about Crooks spread on the internet in the following days as the media widely reported on him and various details about his life.

History

Assassination Attempt of Donald Trump

On July 13th, 2024, around 6:11 p.m. local time, Thomas Crooks fired the first shots aimed at Donald Trump during a Republican campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.^[1] Crooks took aim with an AR-15-style rifle^[9] from a nearby rooftop unguarded by Trump's Secret Service and law enforcement, managing to graze Trump's ear, hit two attendees and fatally injure another attendee named Corey Comperatore before he was shot and killed by Trump's detail.

Thomas Crooks's vantage point and the failure of Trump's security detail became a point of discussion in the aftermath of the shooting, with X^[2] user @OAlexanderDK posting a satellite map showing an aerial view of Crooks, Trump and his Secret Service's positions (seen below, left). X^[3] user @utism_ was one of the first to post an image of the shooter on July 13th, 2024 (seen below, right).

Crooks Wearing Demolition Ranch Shirt

Footage of Thomas Crooks taken on the day of his death shows him wearing merchandise from Demolition Ranch, a YouTube channel about firearms and explosives. The official Facebook^[5] page for the YouTube channel posted a graphic image of Crooks with the caption "What the hell" late on July 13th, 2024.

On July 15th, Demotion Ranch also posted a YouTube^[11] video addressing the news that Trump's would-be assassin was wearing his merchandise at the time of the shooting (seen below, right).

Former Schoolmate Gives Interview

School officials from Bethel Park High School, where Thomas Crooks graduated in 2022, describe him as an above-average student who once received a $500 "star award" from the National Math and Science Initiative. In an interview with NBC News, a former classmate described Crooks as "quiet" and said he was often bullied for wearing hunting gear and camouflage outfits to school. Moreover, former classmates also shared that Crooks tried out for his school's rifle team but could not join due to his poor aim.^[4]

Online History

Crooks's BlackRock Commercial Appearance

Thomas Crooks made a brief appearance in a BlackRock commercial shot at his high school in 2022. The YouTube video was posted on BlackRock's channel on May 16th, 2022, and was pulled from circulation soon after he was identified in the footage on July 14th, 2024. Crooks can be seen at the 19-second mark in the 30-second video (seen below).

🔴 HASARD ? | Celui qui a tenté d'assassiner Donald Trump, Thomas Matthew Crooks, apparaissait dans une publicité pour BlackRock en 2023 (0:19). Les Fake Checkeurs payés grâce au Fond Marianne nous expliqueront sûrement qu'il s'agit d'une simple coïncidence ! pic.twitter.com/zYoti3h4Gg

— GÉOPOLITIQUE PROFONDE (@GPTVoff) July 15, 2024

Many internet users noted the minor connection between Crooks and BlackRock, however, this also drew the ire of internet users who did not believe that there was a further connection between the the shooter and the investment firm.

@Jewgazing Twitter Mishap

Soon after the first images of Thomas Crooks began making the rounds in mid-July 2024, Twitter / X user @jewgazing posted an image of himself to show a striking similarity between his and Crooks's appearance. @jewgazing's post was captioned, "breaking: the trump shooter has been identified."^[6]

A video of @jewgazing joking about being Thomas Matthew Crooks and saying, "I hate Republicans, I hate Trump, and guess what? You got the wrong guy," began making the rounds online before it was deleted (seen below).

pic.twitter.com/M1QyS954mn

— Ryan Dawson (@RyLiberty) July 14, 2024

"The Shooter Is A Cis White Male" Celebrations

In the following hours and days, many progressive internet users posted jokes celebrating the news about Trump's would-be-shooter being a "cisgender white male" as opposed to a racial minority. For example, posts from users like @kunaiposting^[7] and @ettingermentum^[8] on July 13th and 14th gathered over 370,000 and 34,000 likes, respectively, over the following 48 hours (seen below).

'Ree Tardy Oswald'

The nickname "Ree Tardy Oswald" also began making the rounds in the aftermath of the shooting, a reference to Lee Harvey Oswald, the man who killed John F. Kennedy. The earliest known mention of this phrase is a 4chan^[10] post on the site's /pol/ board, where someone mocks Crooks for missing his shot at the President (seen below).

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References