Thomas Crooks

Thomas Matthew Crooks (September 20, 2003 – July 13, 2024) was an American man who attempted to assassinate then-former U.S. president Donald Trump, who at the time was the presumptive Republican Party nominee for the 2024 presidential election. On July 13, 2024, at a rally near Butler, Pennsylvania, Crooks shot at Trump with an AR-15–style rifle from a nearby rooftop while Trump was giving a speech. Crooks wounded Trump's ear and shot three attendees, killing two of them, before being killed by a Secret Service counter sniper team. His motive remained unknown after the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) concluded its investigation in November 2025. Very little information about Crooks was released to the public by the FBI. Public opinion polls from a month after the attempt showed that over half of Americans believed that Crooks did not act alone. The assassination attempt has resulted in conspiracy theories.