Trump rally gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks was a registered Republican, his graduation ceremony and yearbook pic surface

Early Sunday, the FBI confirmed the New York Post’s reporting, officially calling 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks the “subject involved” in the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday.

Trump rally gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks’ (20) old yearbook picture goes viral.

Thereafter, visuals from the gunman’s old graduation ceremony surfaced online, giving the public access to his pictures for the first time. Moreover, a yearbook photo of the would-be assassin from his high school days also went viral.

Crooks was discovered on the manufacturing plant’s roof, 130 yards away from the presumptive Republican presidential nominee’s rally at Butler Farm Show on July 13. Per captured visual evidence, he aimed at the former President with an AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle, leaving Trump’s ear grazed as streams of blood flowed down his face. A rally attendee died in the chaos, while two others were critically injured.

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After the shots were fired, Secret Service neutralised the 20-year-old, eventually taking him out. He was spotted wearing a Demolition Ranch-themed (popular gun YouTube channel) shirt, according to the Post.

Check out Thomas Matthew Crooks’ graduation ceremony footage:

While state voting records confirmed that he was a registered Republican, the school district also revealed Sunday morning that he graduated from Bethel Park High School in 2022. Reuters noted the upcoming November election would have been the first time Crooks could vote due to his age.

Despite ongoing investigations, it has yet to be revealed why the 20-year-old boy attacked the former president.

One of Crooks’ former classmates confirmed his photos. “He didn’t seem like really weird or anything. I would have pegged him as a Republican,” they told The Post. The classmate also pointed out that Crooks was “more of a loner. He probably had a friend group, but not many friends.”

Although an old yearbook photo of the boy has indeed emerged online, it appears he wasn’t pictured in the 2022 yearbook. His classmate explained why that was possibly the case, “Maybe he didn’t come back after Covid.”

Reports stated the deceased gunman grew up in the Pittsburgh suburb of Bethel Park in Pennsylvania, which is about 40 miles south of the Saturday rally’s location in Butler.

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Though a registered Republican, Crooks made a small donation of $15 to the Democratic-aligned ActBlue political action committee called the Progressive Turnout Project on January 20, 2021, aka President Biden’s Inauguration Day, according to Federal Election Commission records.

His graduation ceremony video captures the usual sight of a graduating student walking across the stage to accept his high school diploma. Per TribLive, he also won a $500 National Math and Science Initiative Star Award in 2022, making him one of nearly two dozen students to earn the honour.

Fox News Digital reported that Crooks would have turned 21 this September and had no prior criminal or traffic citations. When CNN reached out to his father late Saturday night, he said he was trying to figure out “what the hell is going on.” At the time, he was waiting to talk to law enforcement before speaking about his son.