The Daily Populous Friday July 19th, 2024 night edition
Authored by abcnews.go.com and submitted by AudibleNod

Investigators working to determine a motive behind the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump are examining a message left on a gaming platform site purported to have been authored by the suspect, according to multiple law enforcement sources briefed on the probe.

Investigators, according to multiple law enforcement sources, found a post on the gaming platform Steam that is credited to the suspected gunman, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks. The post reads "July 13 will be my premiere, watch as it unfolds." Investigators are working to determine whether the post is legitimate.

Investigators also found internet searches for both Trump and President Joe Biden on the phone belonging to Crooks, sources familiar with the investigation told ABC News. Crooks had searched for the dates of Trump's rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, and for those of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, the sources said.

The suspect's phone was one of several devices that law enforcement investigators had collected as they worked to piece together a timeline of the assassination attempt against the former president during a Saturday rally.

The Butler Farm Show, site of a campaign rally for Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump, is seen Monday July 15, 2024 in Butler, Pennsylvania. Gene J. Puskar/AP

"What is beginning to emerge is a portrait of a troubled young person who turned to violence," said John Cohen, an ABC News contributor and former head of intelligence at the Department of Homeland Security.

Cohen, who specializes in the phenomenon of mass shooters, added that investigators may never determine a single or precise motive for the attack. Sources familiar with the investigation have told ABC News that a search of the suspect's phone history has revealed no indication of Crooks’ political views or his motive for the shooting. Investigators have also found no digital footprint from the suspect suggesting any affiliations with international or domestic terrorist groups. They have also been unable to identify any ideological nexus to Trump and/or Biden, according to sources.

"Likely, it was a combination of mental health issues, ideological beliefs and a sense of personal grievance, the same combination of factors present in almost every school shooting and mass casualty attack over the past several years. As with those incidents, the warning signs were there, they were just not recognized," Cohen said. "The threat was real but people around him did not understand what they were witnessing or how it would play out last Saturday.”

The FBI early on Sunday had identified Crooks as the suspect. The U.S. Secret Service said snipers had killed Crooks at the scene. Firefighter Corey Comperatore, a dad who was attending the rally, was killed, and two other bystanders injured, officials said.

The searches compounded the questions that were swirling as investigators searched for a reason for the shooting, including a possible political motive. Crooks had been registered as a Republican voter, according to state records. But a $15 donation to a progressive group was also recorded under "Thomas Crooks" in January 2021, according to FEC records.

This 2021 photo provided by Bethel Park School District shows student Thomas Matthew Crooks who graduated from Bethel Park High School with the Class of 2022, in Bethel Park, Pa. AP

As investigators analyzed the suspect's phone, they looked at his search history, which included the queries for Trump and Biden. But that search history didn't immediately appear to reveal Crooks' political views, sources told ABC News.

Law enforcement officials investigating the assassination attempt told lawmakers on Wednesday that 20 minutes had passed between the time Secret Service snipers first spotted Crooks on a rooftop and the time the first shots were fired, according to several law enforcement officials and lawmakers briefed on the matter.

Meanwhile, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, wrote a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray on Thursday requesting more information on the Trump rally shooting -- a preview of what GOP members on the committee may ask Wray when he appears at a hearing on Wednesday, July 24.

Jordan alleges that "whistleblowers have disclosed to the Committee that the U.S. Secret Service (USSS) did not have proper resources for President Trump's campaign event in Butler because of staffing shortages" due to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit, which ran from July 9 to July 11 in Washington, D.C., and an event attended first lady Jill Biden in Pittsburgh on the same day as the Trump rally.

"The information provided to this Committee raises serious questions about the thoroughness of the security planning by local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies in support of President Trump's campaign rally," Jordan said. "Law enforcement overlooked a number of vulnerabilities prior to and during the event."

Editor's note: The story has been updated based on additional information from law enforcement.

sebyyd on July 18th, 2024 at 16:11 UTC »

Account was fake: https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/trump-shooter-thomas-matthew-crooks-called-july-13-premiere-online-post-assassination-attempt/

ParagonPts on July 18th, 2024 at 16:09 UTC »

CBS News now reporting this was a fake account.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-shooter-thomas-matthew-crooks-called-july-13-premiere-online-post-assassination-attempt/

tetoffens on July 18th, 2024 at 13:14 UTC »

Anyone who doesn't want to click, the message in question was:

> "July 13 will be my premiere, watch as it unfolds"