FBI agents appeared to be seen canvassing shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks' neighborhood in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, one week after the gunman was killed in a failed assassination attempt against former President Trump.
The agents, dressed in button up shirts, were seen driving a small black SUV. They carried documents in hand and went door to door to speak with neighbors.
Investigators are still working to identify a motive in the shooting, which claimed the life of Corey Comperatore and led to injuries for Trump, David Dutch and James Copenhaver.
Neighbors who spoke to Fox News Digital said Crooks' family were not politically outspoken and former classmates described the shooter as a quiet loner.
Jason Kohler, who attended the same high school as Crooks, described him to Fox News as an "outcast" who was always alone and "bullied every day."
Kohler told reporters that Crooks sat alone at lunchtime and was mocked for his clothing, which often included "hunting outfits."
Julianna Grooms, who graduated one year after Crooks, also said that he dressed in camouflage or hunting attire and interacted awkwardly. In his freshman year, she said, he stood out with wide-legged jeans and Spongebob Squarepants T-shirts.
"If someone would say something to his face, he would just kind of stare at them," Grooms told the Wall Street Journal. "People would say he was the student who would shoot up the school."
Fox News Digital's Rebecca Rosenberg and Fox News' Chelsea Torres contributed to this update.
Would-be Trump assassin Thomas Crooks researched mass high school shooter Ethan Crumbley before attempting to kill the former president, according to a source familiar with the matter.
Ethan Crumbley, now 18, is serving life in prison without the possibility of parole for killing four students and injuring seven others at Oxford High School in Michigan in November 2021, when he was just 15 years old.
Crooks looked up Crumbley before carrying out the assassination attempt at Trump's rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, the source told Fox News Digital.
Following Crumbley's historic conviction, his parents, James and Jennifer Crumbley, were also found guilty of involuntary manslaughter.
Prosecutors argued that the couple did not properly secure their guns and home and did not get their son the help he needed before the shooting. The parents even visited Oxford High School administrators to discuss their son's disturbing drawings he made in glass the same morning of the deadly shooting.
Crooks' other internet search history included photos of Trump and Biden, the Democratic National Convention (DNC) and "major depressive disorder," as The New York Times previously reported.
Investigators learned of Crooks' search history after cracking his phone, according to the Times.
Fox News Digital's Audrey Conklin contributed to this update.
Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., spoke to NBC's Kristen Welker about Secret Service briefing for members of Congress on the attempted assassination of former President Trump.
Cramer said a lingering question for lawmaker is why Trump was allowed to take the stage in Butler, Pennsylvania, when there was a known security threat.
"And so when we had this moment last night where we we learned that the directors, not only in the building, but on the same level, a few of us were at we that this is our moment to ask her, and her hostility toward us was remarkable, her unwillingness to talk and and then the appropriate suggestion that maybe this isn't the right place to do it," Cramer said, referring to the moment a group of GOP senators confronted Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday.
Cramer said Trump never should have been allowed on stage at the rally.
"I mean, when you look at that timeline and you think at 551, this threat was so significant that that the Secret Service notified the counter sniper unit, who then put their eyes on that roof. So if it was significant enough to call the calling the counter sniper unit, why wasn't it significant enough to keep the president from going to the stage."
{{#rendered}}A retired U.S. Secret Service agent questioned why former President Trump was cleared to take the stage at Saturday's rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, despite a "person of interest" being identified beforehand.
"Why the rush? Why push him on stage? Why not delay?" questioned Mike Matranga on "America's Newsroom" Thursday.
"It would have taken nothing to take a tactical pause, assess the situation, locate him, and potentially prevent what we haven't seen in 43 years."
Shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks was perceived by the Secret Service as a "person of interest" after law enforcement saw him acting suspiciously and determined he had a golf range finder, according to Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi.
Crooks was only identified as a threat when he "retrieved the weapon" and climbed onto the roof of a building just prior to the shooting, according to Guglielmi, who added that a threat requires, "a different protocol and a different course of action than a person of interest."
Soon after that, Butler Township police officers confronted Crooks on the roof, and he pointed his weapon at one of them, who then dropped off the roof. Crooks then fired on Trump and was taken out by a Secret Service counter sniper.
Matranga called the situation a "catastrophic failure."
"Failing to even address the American people or to point the finger solely at the local law enforcement is just not right," he said. "This is a catastrophic failure of communications. We've known this for decades, that we rely too heavily on our local counterparts to do the jobs that we are designed to do, and so this is a catastrophic failure."
"The former president deserves better," he continued. "The individuals who were harmed and the individual who succumbed to his injuries deserve better."
Fox News Digital's Elizabeth Heckman contributed to this update.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump will hold his first campaign rally on Saturday since the assassination attempt on his life just one week ago.
Trump is scheduled to travel to Grand Rapids, in the battleground state of Michigan, where he will be joined for the first time by his running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio. The rally will be their first joint appearance on the campaign trail.
Trump and Vance will take the stage in Grand Rapids with the Republican Party unified behind them after this week's nominating convention. In contrast, the Democrats are in turmoil and it is no longer certain that President Joe Biden will be the Democratic nominee facing Trump in the Nov. 5 election.
Biden is facing mounting calls from many elected officials in his own party to step aside as the party's White House candidate and to end his re-election bid, after his poor debate performance against Trump last month.
Reuters contributed to this update.
A Florida man was arrested Friday after he allegedly made written threats against former President Donald Trump and his 2024 running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, on social media.
The Jupiter Police Department said Michael M. Wiseman has been charged after making written threats to kill Trump, Vance and their families on Facebook.
Police received multiple online crime tips alerting them to the alleged Facebook posts.
"After investigating the reports and the suspect’s Facebook account, JPD detectives found that Wiseman had made multiple threats against Trump and Vance, who earlier this week became the Republican nominees for President and Vice President, respectively. Threats were also made concerning bodily harm to members of the Trump and Vance families," the police department said in a statement.
"JPD coordinated the investigation with the United States Secret Service and the Palm Beach County State Attorney’s Office. JPD officers took Wiseman into custody without incident."
Jupiter is about 20 miles north of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in Palm Beach.
The Associated Press contributed to this update.
{{#rendered}}The Secret Service should have foreseen a "tactical reason" to have countersnipers placed on the AGR building rooftop at former President Trump's Pennsylvania rally on Saturday – where gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire – according to a retired Army infantry captain who witnessed the chaos from the front row.
"I've been in more firefights than I can count, I can tell you, but I've never been in anything like that," Sean Parnell, a former congressional candidate who can be seen in photos of the shooting just steps away from Trump on stage right, told Fox News Digital.
"Doesn’t it make sense to engage behind the president, too?" he added. "There was a tactical reason for that to be occupied."
Parnell said that as soon as he arrived at the rally, he took a general look around and potential security vulnerabilities stood out to him, but he also saw a strong police presence.
"As a combat veteran, 16 months in Afghanistan, I'll tell you that looking for threats like that is, once you come back from combat, you're kind of wired like that," he said. "That experience that never leaves you. I didn’t think anything was going to go wrong. I'm at a political rally … but you still think about that."
He said his immediate thought was that the gunman was either perched on a nearby water tower or the AGR building to the north of the stage.
"Instantly, it was like building or water tower," he recalled. "But there's no freaking way. The Secret Service would have that on lockdown."
But somehow, Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, was able to climb on top of it with a rifle.
Fox News Digital's Michael Ruiz contributed to this update.
The Republican leader of Pennsylvania’s second-most populous county said Friday the way former President Trump responded to his assassination attempt likely won him the support of critics and undecided voters alike.
Allegheny County Republican Committee chairman Sam DeMarco – whose area was rocked by news that shooter Thomas Crooks was living in their community – said that although he did not attend the Butler, Pa., rally, he shared his real-time reaction to the news.
"I was getting ready to go downtown to meet my friends and listening on the Fox stream when I heard the president had been shot, and I could tell you I was absolutely floored," he said. "I couldn't believe that something like that could happen; [that] there could be a lapse in security that could permit that."
DeMarco said, however, it was Trump’s reaction, now immortalized by the iconic image of the Republican presidential nominee mouthing the word "fight" with his fist in the air, and his courage to continue on with his campaign that will live on.
"I think President Trump, in the wake of the shooting there as he rose to his feet, with the Secret Service, men, women just hanging off of him had the thought to be able to raise his fist in the air to show the crowd that he was okay and to urge them to continue to ‘fight,’ fight for this country – I think he won votes from folks that were undecided, or may not have been supporters, from folks all across this country," DeMarco said.
"I think he further exhibited the strength that he has when he, after just going back to [Bedminster, N.J.] for a day, continued on to the Republican [National] Convention on-schedule – and then culminated last night with a one-hour-plus speech."
"What person – after having been shot by someone and coming so close to death – can carry on like that?"
Fox News Digital's Charles Creitz contributed to this update.
Billy Ray Cyrus on Friday appeared at the funeral for Corey Comepratore, a volunteer firefighter, husband and father who was killed by gunfire last Saturday during a rally for former President Donald Trump.
The "Achy Breaky Heart" singer was seen taking photos and shaking hands with law enforcement in attendance outside Cabot United Methodist Church in Cabot, Pennsylvania, on Friday morning.
"Corey Comperatore is a[n] Army reservist veteran and former firefighter chief. Billy Ray Cyrus has always been passionate about honoring troops and first responders. Today he was honored to join the family and perform during the service," a source told Fox News Digital on Friday.
The funeral for Comperatore, 50, drew hundreds of family members, friends and local law enforcement officials — both local and federal — to Cabot. Butler County residents, including those who knew the Comperatore family and those who did not, lined the rural roads surrounding the church with American flags and signs honoring Comperatore.
"American Hero Corey Comperatore," one sign read. Another called the volunteer firefighter a "true hero."
Comperatore died after being shot at the rally while protecting his family.
Former President Trump commemorated the fallen firefighter on Thursday night at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, with Comperatore's firefighter jacket and helmet displayed on stage.
"He lost his life selflessly acting as a human shield to protect them from flying bullets... what a fine man he was," Trump said during his RNC speech on Thursday. "There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for others.
Fox News Digital's Audrey Conklin and Chris Eberhart contributed to this update.
{{#rendered}}The shot that killed the man who attempted to assassinate former President Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, last Saturday was a "one-in-a-million shot," according to a source familiar with the investigation into the shooting.
Fox News learned from the source the kill shot was a single shot taken by a Secret Service counter sniper whose view was obscured.
A local tactical team also took a shot at the would-be assassin, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, but missed.
The Secret Service sniper who killed Crooks could only see Crooks’ gun scope and the top of his eye and forehead because the lip of the roof was blocking the sniper’s view.
The source described the shot to Fox News as a "one-in-a-million shot."
The news comes as more information begins to come out about the botched security detail that allowed Crooks to climb onto a building, get a clear line of sight of Trump and open fire on the former president.
While the Secret Service agents who stopped the shooter and jumped to protect Trump are being praised, the agency’s director, Kimberly Cheatle, has been harshly criticized for her handling of the matter.
The House Committee On Oversight and Accountability has scheduled a hearing for Monday with Cheatle, who is facing calls to resign from lawmakers over her agency's handling of the Trump rally shooting.
The hearing, "Oversight of the U.S. Secret Service and the Attempted Assassination of President Donald J. Trump," is scheduled to begin on Capitol Hill at 10 a.m. Monday.
Fox News Digital's Greg Wehner and Bryan Lienas contributed to this update.
A Kentucky college professor is "no longer" employed at Bellarmine University after his controversial comments on the assassination attempt on former President Trump went viral.
Professor John James reacted to the shooting with an Instagram post that read, "if you're gonna shoot, man, don't miss." A screenshot of James' post was captured and shared by Libs of TikTok, an account with 3.2 million followers on X.
After the Libs of TikTok post went viral, Bellarmine University announced that James had been placed on unpaid leave.
"Words and actions that condone violence are unacceptable and contrary to our values, which call for respecting the intrinsic value and dignity of every individual,” the school said in a statement. “We strive to create an inclusive community that welcomes all and models a spirit of goodwill. We are aware of an offensive and unacceptable social media post made by an employee over the weekend.”
In a July 16 update, the university said James "is no longer a Bellarmine employee."
Dr. Anthony Fauci waved away concerns over former President Trump's gunshot wound after the assassination attempt on Trump's life during a rally in Pennsylvania last week.
On July 13, shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks fired a bullet that grazed the side of Trump's head, hitting the top of his right ear. One spectator was killed and two others were critically injured by the assailant before he was shot dead by U.S. Secret Service agents.
Fauci, during an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer, said the public shouldn't be very concerned about the extent of Trump's wound and the former president's treatment.
"I don’t think there is much more to it. I mean, from what we’ve seen and what we’ve heard, it was, it was a bullet shot that grazed his ear and injured his ear, according to the physicians who examined him. There was no other further damage," Fauci said.
"So I think that with regard to the health related purely to the bullet itself, I think he’s he’s in the clear as far as I can see. I mean, it’s dangerous to make diagnoses from a distance from what I’m seeing, the way he’s acting now and what his physicians report saw. It seems to have been a superficial wound to the ear, and that’s all."
{{#rendered}}Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle said Friday she will testify before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee on Monday.
“We are committed to better understanding what happened before, during and after the assassination attempt of former President Trump to ensure it never happens again,” the Secret Service said in a statement.
Earlier this week, Oversight Chair James Comer, R-Ky., issued a subpoena to compel Cheatle to testify. The Department of Homeland Security requested that her testimony be delayed until later in the week, but the committee refused.
“Americans demand answers from Director Kimberly Cheatle about the Secret Service’s historic security failures that led to the attempted assassination of President Trump, murder of an innocent victim, and harm to others in the crowd. We look forward to Director Cheatle’s testimony on Monday, July 22 to deliver the transparency and accountability Americans deserve,” Comer said in a statement after Cheatle confirmed she will testify Monday.
House lawmakers have promised to exercise oversight on the Secret Service after former President Trump was shot at his July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Questions abound on how the shooter was able to take a sniper's position on an unsecured rooftop within range of the president.
Cheatle has resisted calls for her resignation after the security failure.
A Pittsburgh man who witnessed the assassination attempt on former President Trump in Butler, Pa., last weekend recounted his amazement to Fox News Digital in watching the crowd erupt in cheers after the GOP nominee mouthed "Fight!" and fist-pumped moments after being shot.
Bob Crankovic said he was sitting behind Trump just off his right shoulder when the rally began.
Several minutes into the rally, Thomas Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pa., attempted to kill Trump, but shot him in the ear after the former president turned at the last moment to explain a border policy graphic.
Crankovic, who has been active in local Republican circles since 2016, said it was approximately his fourth Trump rally, and that Saturday's started just as the others had – with rallygoers bedecked in red hats and American flag-themed regalia.
However, after shots rang out, Crankovic saw Trump dropping and being smothered by Secret Service agents. What happened next was similarly shocking, he said.
"As soon as unfortunately the shots went out what happened was that I immediately ducked for cover," he said. "By the time I happened to look up at the president, roughly around the second or third shot, he was already covered up," he said.
"So it was tough to watch. But, I mean, as soon as the president got up, everybody was absolutely screaming their head off for the president in support."
Fox News' Charles Creitz contributed to this report.
Investigators are probing whether would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks flew a drone over the rally site in Butler, Pennsylvania, hours before he shot former President Trump on July 13.
A source familiar with the investigation confirmed reporting that Crooks flew a drone over the buildings he eventually climbed on to try to assassinate Trump.
A senior congressional source also tells Fox News they are looking into the matter, but could not confirm specifics of the drone.
Earlier, the Wall Street Journal reported that law-enforcement officials briefed on the matter said 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks flew a drone to conduct reconnaissance at the Butler Farm Show fairgrounds before Trump took the stage.
According to the Journal, Crooks flew the drone on a programmed flight path to the grounds on July 13, and officials said the path suggests the shooter flew the drone to the site more than one time ahead of the event.
A source told Fox News Digital that the FBI is looking at a drone linked to the shooting investigation, but pushed back on the specifics of The Wall Street Journal's reporting.
The FBI declined to comment to Fox News Digital.
Fox News' Bryan Lienas, Chad Pergram, CB Cotton and Fox News Digital's Greg Wehner contributed to this update.
{{#rendered}}There are now two working theories on how Thomas Crooks got a DPMS AR-15 rifle onto the roof of the AGR building in Butler, Pennsylvania last Saturday without being noticed prior to an assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, who's now the 2024 Republican presidential nominee.
According to a federal law enforcement source briefed on the investigation, Crooks either hid his father’s rifle near the AC unit he used to climb up onto the roof of the AGR building, or he had it in the backpack he was spotted with, along with the golf range finder.
However, this source said hiding the rifle in his backpack would require a significant amount of disassembling and reassembling the rifle, and that the more likely scenario is that Crooks hid the rifle behind the AC unit.
Fox News has reported that Crooks bought a ladder and ammunition on the morning of the rally. However, federal law enforcement sources say that no ladder was found on site, and the working theory is that Crooks grabbed the rifle, climbed upon the AC unit and then climbed onto the roof.
We now also know that the unit inside that building was a Butler Township Emergency Services Unit sniper team who was doing "overwatch" on the event. This team was looking out of the windows of the building at the event, watching for any suspicious activity, while Crooks snuck up on the roof above them.
Fox News can also report that the Secret Service Counter Sniper who killed Crooks took only one shot.
Fox News' Jake Gibson and David Spunt contributed to this report.
Live Coverage begins here