Home of Trump rally shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks revisited by FBI as investigators look for motive
BETHEL PARK, Pa. (KDKA) -- Investigators are canvassing the Pittsburgh area to figure out what happened in the hours ahead of the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, including talking with people in Thomas Matthew Crooks' Bethel Park neighborhood.
Around 10 a.m. Monday morning, a few SUVs rolled up to the street where Crooks, the gunman who was killed by Secret Service snipers, lived. Several men got out of the vehicles. One was wearing a patch that said Pittsburgh Federal Bureau of Investigation, with the word SWAT also in the middle of the embroidered patch.
The FBI said its Evidence Response Team is continuing to process the scene in Bethel Park as part of its investigation. In an update Monday afternoon, the FBI said a preliminary search of Crooks' cell phone didn't help investigators learn any clues to determine a motive.
The investigators split up in pairs and were knocking on doors, in many cases to no avail. One pair was let into the Crooks' home and left after a few minutes.
The FBI also approached two people on their porch. They asked a few questions and left. The two people on the porch said they didn't know much about the shooter or any of the Crooks family.
"I don't feel any particular culpability to it because I live in the same neighborhood," said neighbor Steve Riviere. "I think everybody is shocked and surprised, maybe not as surprised as we should be, but shocked that this kind of thing happened. And I think we all hope that this will be the end of it and we'll get to a position where people can have regular polite discourse about their issues rather than pulling out a gun and climbing on a roof."
Riviere said he doesn't know much, and that's what they told the feds.
Liam Campell was a classmate who lives across the street. When asked what he thought after investigators found rudimentary bomb making materials just a few feet away at Crooks' family home, he said, "I was shocked knowing that he lived so close to me, that he did something like that, it's just shocking."
As federal investigators search for a motive behind the shooting that injured several and killed a local father, Crooks' former classmates are trying to process.
"I don't know what happened after graduation, but in high school he was never the type that I would have to worry about," said former classmate Summer Barkley.
According to multiple law enforcement officials, Crooks' father called police after the shooting, but CBS News doesn't have details about the nature of the call of the exact timing. The family is cooperating with investigators, according to the FBI.
Investigators said Crooks bought 50 rounds of ammo for his gun the morning of the shooting. Crooks fired six to eight rounds with an AR-style weapon, grazing Trump's ear, killing one bystander and critically wounding two others.