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FBI: No clear motive for shooting so far
Nearly 24 hours after what FBI officials called an assassination attempt at a Donald Trump campaign rally in Pennsylvania, law enforcement officials said they had not yet identified a motive for the attack.
Authorities named the suspected gunman as Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, and said he is believed to have acted alone.
“At present, we have not identified an ideology associated with the subject, but I want to remind everyone that we’re still very early in this investigation,” FBI special agent in charge Kevin Rojek told reporters in a Sunday briefing, according to ABC News.
The FBI did not “currently have an identified motive, although our investigators are working tirelessly to attempt to identify what that motive was,” he said.
Public records show that Crooks was a registered Republican, who in 2021 had donated $15 to a progressive super PAC. The FBI said they believe the AR-style rifle the shooter used was legally purchased by the gunman’s father.
The FBI is combing through the suspect’s social media feeds but so far has not found any threatening writing or social media posts, officials said. At least one social media platform popular with gamers, Discord, said the suspect had an account but was not particularly active, and had not discussed his political beliefs or plans for an attack.
The suspect’s employer, the Bethel Park Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, said in a statement that he “performed his job without concern and his background check was clean.”
The FBI said it was investigating the Trump rally shooting as a potential act of domestic terrorism, defined as an action inside the US that is intended to intimidate or coerce civilians or influence government policy, the Associated Press reported.
The absence of a clear ideological motive added to the deepening questions about the shooting, the Associated Press reported, denying the public any swift or tidy conclusions about the shocking attack.
Reuters and the Associated Press contributed reporting
Suspect, named as Thomas Matthew Crooks, also killed in shooting at Pennsylvania rally; former first lady echoes husband’s call for unity
www.theguardian.com