Trump rally shooter identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks

The 20-year-old gunman who attempted to assassinate former President Donald J. Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania lived in a relatively affluent suburb in the hills south of Pittsburgh, about an hour’s drive from the site of the rally.

The 20-year-old gunman who attempted to assassinate former President Donald J. Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania lived in a relatively affluent suburb in the hills south of Pittsburgh, about an hour’s drive from the site of the rally.

The neighborhood in Bethel Park where the shooter, identified by the F.B.I. as Thomas Matthew Crooks, grew up is “pretty firmly middle class, maybe upper-middle class,” Dan Grzybek, who represents the area on the county council, said in an interview on Sunday.

Mr. Grzybek briefly met the gunman’s parents last year when he was canvassing for his run. He did not recall the exact conversation, but he remembered they seemed pleasant and were open to hear his platform.

The gunman was a registered Republican, his mother was a Democrat and his father a Libertarian, a fairly typical mix for the area, Mr. Grzybek said.

You’ve got a large spattering of different backgrounds and ideals, and definitely have a lot of mixed households in Bethel Park,” he said.

Former F.B.I. officials said the bureau’s behavioral analysis unit would try to build out a profile of the gunman to understand his motivations and why he decided to carry out the attempted assassination. The F.B.I., which is running the investigation, will cast a wide net, interviewing friends and family members and scouring the internet for clues he might have left online or in a journal.

This remains an active and ongoing investigation,” the F.B.I. said in a statement early Sunday.

The gunman did not have a criminal history reflected in Pennsylvania’s public court records, and officials said they had not identified a motive. A voter-registration record showed Mr. Crooks’s Republican registration, though federal campaign-finance records show he donated $15 to the Progressive Turnout Project, a liberal voter turnout group, through the Democratic donation platform ActBlue in January 2021.

Law enforcement officers closed down all roads leading toward the home of the suspect’s family in Bethel Park. Numerous relatives did not respond to messages seeking comment.

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