Would-Be Trump Assassin Used Fake Name To Make Purchases At Gun Stores, Took Firearms Classes: Report

The man who attempted to assassinate former President Donald Trump used an alias to make “firearms-related purchases” and started taking firearms classes almost a year before he opened fire at Trump’s Pennsylvania rally, law enforcement sources told The New York Post.

The Post reported that beginning last spring, the shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, made over 25 purchases from online gun stores using a fake name, according to the sources. Along with the firearms-related purchases, the would-be assassin bought six “chemical precursors” that authorities said he used to make explosive devices which were found in his car and at his home. It remains unknown if the shooter purchased any firearms through a fake name or if he only purchased ammunition or accessories.

The ongoing investigation into the assassination attempt has also revealed that Crooks was “highly intelligent,” and around September of 2023, he started taking firearms classes. The shooter practiced at a local shooting range with his father’s DPMS DR-15 a day before firing shots at the former president with the same weapon, the Post reported.

Trump was hit by one of the shooter’s bullets after the would-be assassin climbed onto the roof of the American Glass Research building and fired off eight shots from a position less than 150 yards away from the rally stage before he was killed by a Secret Service sniper. Three rally-goers were also struck by the spray bullets, and firefighter Corey Comperatore was killed in the shooting.

Text messages between members of the Beaver County SWAT team revealed that a sniper spotted the shooter more than 90 minutes before he fired at Trump, ABC News reported on Monday. The sniper texted the other SWAT members that he saw the shooter “sitting to the direct right on a picnic table about 50 yards from the exit.” Then, an hour before the shooting, sniper team member Gregory Nicol said he saw the shooter take a rangefinder out of his pocket. Nicol took a picture of the shooter and warned his team members of a suspicious man at the rally.

“He was looking up and down the building. It just seemed out of place,” Nicol told “Good Morning America.”

The local SWAT team was supposed to meet with the Secret Service before Trump’s rally, but that meeting never happened, according to sniper team leader Jason Woods.

“That was probably a pivotal point, where I started thinking things were wrong because (the meeting) never happened,” Woods said. “We had no communication … not until after the shooting.”