EXCLUSIVE: Trump shooter's father returns to public life, says ‘we just want to try to take care of ourselves’

BETHEL PARK, Pa. – Thomas Matthew Crooks' father was spotted in public on Monday for the first time since the 20-year-old gunman opened fire at former President Donald Trump's rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, according to a local business employee and a neighbor who identified a picture of him.

Snipers killed Crooks after the Bethel Park resident nicked Trump's ear, killed bystander Corey Comperatore and injured two others at the July 13 rally, David Dutch and James Copenhaver.

Investigators have spent the last week visiting Crooks' family home in their suburban Pittsburgh neighborhood.

The man locals identified as the father and a masked woman he was with declined to answer questions when approached by Fox News Digital.

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"We're going to release a statement when our legal counsel advises us to do so – until then, we have no comment," he told Fox News Digital before beginning to load items into the vehicle. "We just want to try to take care of ourselves right now. Please, just give us our space."

Crooks' family members have cooperated with the FBI as the agency tries to pin down a motive for the near assassination.

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Fox News Digital previously reported that Crooks' parents, Matthew and Mary, called police hours before the shooting, saying that he was missing and that they were concerned about his welfare. It is unclear whether they knew that he was in possession of the AR-15 registered to his father.

Both Matthew and Mary Crooks are licensed as professional counselors, according to the Pennsylvania Department of State Licensing System Verification Service.

Crooks graduated from Bethel Park High School in 2020. In May, he earned an associate's degree in engineering from the Community College of Allegheny County.

Crooks reportedly planned to enroll at Robert Morris University after being accepted there and at and the University of Pittsburgh.

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Investigators are trying to piece together how Crooks was able to evade security around the site of Trump's rally on July 13 at the Butler Farm Show property. He climbed onto the roof of an AGR manufacturing building about 150 yards from Trump's podium and fired off several shots before snipers killed him.

Crooks was spotted with a rangefinder before the shooting, and investigators are looking into how he was able to avoid law enforcement and climb onto the roof with his father's rifle.

Lawmakers visited the shooting site on Monday as Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle testified before Congress about the security failures for the rally.

A motive for the shooting remains unclear. Crooks was a member of a local gun club, and he bought ammunition before the attack. 

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A former classmate of Crooks told Fox News Digital the killer had confronted him years earlier about his support for Trump and expressed a "smug" dislike for politicians.

Crooks' online searches before the shooting included dates and times of the Democratic and Republican national conventions, photos of Trump and President Biden, and major depressive disorder.