It has been noted that the FBI has identified a suspect in the attempted assassination investigation after the shooting Saturday targeting former president Donald Trump, in which two people are confirmed dead, including a suspected shooter.
CNN reported Saturday the FBI now has the suspect’s identity before the name was released.
In a potentially related incident, Butler police are investigating a suspicious vehicle with out-of-state plates that has been parked since about 1:30 in the afternoon approximately a mile from the site of the shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania.
WTAE News reporter Yazmin Rodriguez reported live from the area where the bomb squad was called in to investigate.
New tonight: CNN's John Miller reporting that the FBI has identified the suspect. Name not being released yet, but his sources say the suspect is a 20-year old man from Pennsylvania.
— Abby D. Phillip (@abbydphillip) July 14, 2024
It has been noted that the FBI identified 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, as the suspect in what it called an attempted assassination. He was a registered Republican as per state voter records and had made a $15 donation to a Democratic political action committee at the age of 17.
The shooting transpired less than four months before the November 5 election, when Trump faced an election rematch with Democratic President Joe Biden. Most opinion polls including those by Reuters/Ipsos show the two locked in a close contest.
The shooting whipsawed the discussion around the presidential campaign, which had been focused for much of the past two weeks on Democrats’ questions as to whether Biden, 81, should drop out following a disastrous June debate performance.
