If the FBI has its way, there’ll be no consideration of the strategic environment in which the attempted assassination of Donald Trump took place. To ensure that that happens, the FBI is going with the lone assassin theory in its investigation. According to a report by AP, 20 year old Thomas Crooks’ motivation for taking shots at Trump remains unclear, he wasn’t on the FBI’s radar, and he was believed to have acted alone. Investigators combed through his social media accounts but found no immediate threatening writing or posts, or communications indicating an ideological motive.
USA Today described Crooks as a nursing home worker with no criminal record, shy in school, and living in a decent middle-class neighborhood in suburban Pennsylvania with his parents. “As far as the actions of the shooter immediately prior to the event and any interaction that he may have had with law enforcement, we’re still trying to flesh out those details now,” said FBI Special Agent Kevin Rojek during a conference call with reporters. None of Crooks’s shocked neighbors or high school classmates described him as violent or that he had in any way signaled he was intent on harming Trump. However, USA Today claimed that Crooks “nevertheless embodies the achingly familiar profile of an American mass shooter: a young white man, isolated from peers and armed with a high-powered rifle.” His attack was one of at least 59 shootings in the United States on Saturday, July 13, according to the Gun Violence Archive.
