It’s a scene that’s basically burned into the collective memory of the country. July 13, 2024. Butler, Pennsylvania. The heat was thick, the crowd was loud, and Donald Trump was mid-sentence, gesturing toward a chart about immigration. Then, those rhythmic, terrifying pops.
Honestly, it felt like time stopped. You’ve seen the footage of him reaching for his ear, the Secret Service pile-on, and that defiant fist pump against a blue sky. But once the dust settled and the initial shock wore off, the world was left with one massive, nagging question: who actually did this?
The Face Behind the Rifle: Thomas Matthew Crooks
The man who shot Donald Trump was a 20-year-old named Thomas Matthew Crooks. He didn't look like a movie villain. He was a skinny kid from Bethel Park, a middle-class suburb about an hour south of the rally site.
Crooks was a "quiet" guy. That’s the word every neighbor and former classmate used when the FBI started knocking on doors. He worked as a dietary aide at a nursing home. He’d recently graduated from community college with an associate degree in engineering. By all outward appearances, he was just another face in the Pennsylvania suburbs.
But beneath that "normal" exterior, things were getting dark.
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A Loner with an AR-15
Crooks didn't have a massive criminal record or a history of institutionalization. He was a member of the Clairton Sportsmen’s Club, where he practiced at the 200-yard rifle range. The weapon he used—a DPMS Panther Arms AR-15—actually belonged to his father. His dad had bought it legally years prior and later sold it to his son.
Investigation logs from 2025 and 2026 reveal that Crooks spent his final months living a double life. While he was emailing professors about his grades, he was also ordering bomb-making materials and researching the distance Lee Harvey Oswald was from JFK. He even flew a drone over the rally site just hours before the shooting to scope out the layout. Talk about calculated.
What Really Happened on the Roof?
The logistics of how a 20-year-old got onto a roof with a clear line of sight to a former president is still a point of massive contention. The building was the AGR International warehouse. It sat just about 400 feet from the stage.
People in the crowd actually saw him. They pointed. They yelled. "He's on the roof! He's got a gun!"
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A local officer even climbed up to the edge of the roof, but Crooks turned the rifle on him, forcing the officer to drop back down. Seconds later, Crooks opened fire. He let off eight rounds in rapid succession. One grazed Trump’s upper right ear. Tragically, one rally-goer, a former fire chief named Corey Comperatore, was killed while shielding his family. Two others were critically injured.
The Final Moments
The Secret Service counter-sniper team didn't miss once they had a visual. Within roughly 26 seconds of the first shot being fired, a counter-sniper team neutralized Crooks with a single shot to the head.
The aftermath was a mess of investigations. The Secret Service Director resigned. Multiple reports—including a final 2025 congressional inquiry—slammed the "cascading failures" in communication. Local police and the Secret Service were on different radio frequencies. It was a "perfect storm" of bureaucratic incompetence.
Why Did He Do It?
This is the part that still frustrates people. Even now, in 2026, there isn't a "smoking gun" manifesto. Crooks didn't leave a note saying "I'm doing this because of X."
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His search history was a chaotic map of political figures from both sides of the aisle. He looked up Trump. He looked up Biden. He looked up the dates of the DNC. He seemed less interested in a specific ideology and more obsessed with the idea of a high-profile assassination.
- Political leanings: He was a registered Republican.
- The donation: He once gave $15 to a progressive voter turnout group when he was 17.
- The mindset: FBI analysts suggest he was a "disaffected loner" who saw a major event as a way to make his mark.
What Most People Get Wrong
There are a lot of conspiracy theories floating around. You’ve probably heard them on social media—claims that there was a second shooter or that it was an "inside job."
The FBI’s final report in late 2025 was pretty definitive: Crooks acted alone. They analyzed over 75,000 pages of documents and thousands of hours of footage. While the security failures were real and embarrassing, there’s no credible evidence of a wider conspiracy. He was a kid with a rifle who found a massive hole in a security perimeter.
Actionable Insights: Staying Informed in a World of Noise
When a story this big happens, the "information fog" is real. Here is how you can actually keep the facts straight when looking back at the Butler shooting:
- Check the Primary Sources: Don't rely on a screenshot of a tweet. Go to the FBI’s official vault or the House Task Force’s final reports. They lay out the ballistics and the timeline in boring, factual detail.
- Verify the Weapon Specs: Understanding that an AR-15 at 150 yards is a relatively "easy" shot for someone who practices explains why he was able to get so close to a hit without being a "professional" sniper.
- Distinguish Between Malice and Incompetence: Most "conspiracies" in the Trump shooting were actually just human error. Low-battery radios, poor line-of-sight checks, and siloed communication are the real villains here.
The events in Butler changed the trajectory of American politics. Understanding the reality of who shot Donald Trump isn't just about a name and a face; it's about realizing how a single person, a few security lapses, and a rifle can change history in less than thirty seconds.