President Biden addressed the nation last night to call for calm in the wake of the assassination attempt on his predecessor and rival in the ongoing campaign. Aside from a couple of embarrassing stumbles, notably saying, “we resolve our differences at the battle box” when he meant “ballot box,” it was a statesmanlike speech. (Former President Trump claims that he, too, will use his convention speech this week as “a chance to bring the country together.” I’ll believe it when I see it.)
As he had earlier in the day, Biden emphasized how little we know about what motivated the shooter and promised that the FBI will have all the resources necessary to get to the bottom of it.
Thus far, the profile that’s emerging is all too familiar. Futile though it may be, I’m avoiding using the killer’s name since celebrity was almost certainly his goal.
BBC:
In his well-to-do hometown, however, neighbours are in shock, seemingly unable to grasp how a quiet young man is now accused in the shooting.
[…]
State voter records show that he was a registered Republican, according to US media.
He is also reported to have donated $15 to liberal campaign group ActBlue in 2021.
He had a membership at a local shooting club, the Clairton Sportsmen’s Club, for at least a year.[…]
“We do not currently have an identified motive,” said Kevin Rojek, FBI Pittsburgh special agent in charge, at a briefing on Saturday night.
[…]
Speaking to local news outlet KDKA, some young locals who went to school with him described him as a loner, who was frequently bullied and sometimes wore “hunting outfits to school”.
Another former classmate of his, Summer Barkley, cast him differently, telling the BBC that he was “always getting good grades on tests” and was “very passionate about history”.
“Anything on government and history he seemed to know about,” she said. “But it was nothing out of the ordinary….he was always nice.” She described him as well-liked by his teachers.
Others simply remembered him as quiet. “He was there but I can’t think of anyone who knew him well,” one former classmate, who asked to remain nameless, told the BBC. “He’s just not a guy I really think about. But he seemed fine.”
WSJ:
The man who authorities say tried to assassinate former President Donald Trump was a quiet student who took advanced classes and a sometimes-bullied loner who wasn’t vocal about his political views, classmates said on Sunday, as a portrait began to emerge of the gunman who shocked an American public already becoming inured to escalating political violence.
Schoolmates said [he], at times dressed in camouflage or hunting attire, had few friends and interacted awkwardly at school. “If someone would say something to his face, he would just kind of stare at them,” said Julianna Grooms, who graduated one year after [him]. “People would say he was the student who would shoot up high school.”
Others in his tidy, suburban neighborhood of brick ranch homes said they had no recollection of him at all. Students from area high schools, gathered at summer parties this weekend, were checking their social media feeds for any trace of him and found little.
[…]
[H]e acted alone, and investigators were still trying to determine his motive and ideology, said Kevin Rojek, FBI special agent in charge of the FBI’s Pittsburgh office. Part of the challenge, officials said, was that they hadn’t found any of the kind of writings or manifestos that often surface after such attacks. FBI agents were urgently working to get access to [his] cellphone, which they had shipped to the bureau’s lab at Quantico, Va. But the limited insights they had been able to glean into his recent communications hadn’t revealed anything about his motive or suggested anyone else was involved.
[He] hadn’t been on the FBI’s radar as a possible threat before the shooting, and investigators had found no indications of mental-health issues, Rojek said. [His] family was cooperating with investigators.
“We continue to look at all his social-media accounts and look for any potential threatening language,” he said, “but as of right now, we have not seen it.”
[…]
On President Biden’s inauguration day, [he] gave $15 to the Chicago-based Progressive Turnout Project, a Democratic-aligned political-action committee that rallies voters, according to Federal Election Commission records. Pennsylvania voting records show he was a registered Republican.
“He never outwardly spoke about his political views or how much he hated Trump or anything,” said Sarah D’Angelo, another classmate of Crooks at Bethel Park High. She recalled him playing games on his laptop during homeroom before the school day began.
She and others described him as somewhat of a loner, saying he had “a few friends,” but “didn’t have a whole friend group.” [He] would sometimes sit alone at lunch, said Kendall Spragg, who was a year behind him at Bethel Park High School. “He didn’t really fit in with everybody else,” she said.
The Philadelphia Inquirer adds:
In the sea of caps and gowns, [he] hardly stood out.
Few people clapped when his name was called. A YouTube video of his graduation two years ago from Bethel Park High School shows a slender and bespectacled student receiving his diploma with a soft smile.
But the class of 2022 awoke Sunday to learn that the 20-year-old Allegheny County man was notorious, the shooter in the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump during a rally that left an ex-firefighter, Corey Comperatore, dead and two other attendees wounded.
[…]
[His] actions shocked residents in his hometown, sparked countless conspiracy theories online, and prompted investigators to begin combing through every aspect of his life, looking for motive.
The mystery has been fueled by a near-total absence of [his] social media postings, political writings, or other digital fingerprints.
Several former classmates appeared on national television Sunday, quickly casting [him] as a stereotypical loner who was bullied heavily during his time at Bethel Park. One of them, Jason Kohler, told reporters Sunday that students tormented Crooks “almost every day” and that he often wore “hunting” outfits to class.
“He was just an outcast,” Kohler said, “and you know how kids are nowadays.”
Yet, two former students interviewed by The Inquirer disputed the characterization.
They did not recall specific incidents of violence or other antagonism involving their now-infamous classmate in the community they described as generally tight-knit.
Mark Sigafoos remembered [him] as the quiet but friendly kid he shared two classes with at Bethel Park.
“He was very kind,” Sigafoos said Sunday, by phone. “He was a nerdy kid, but I don’t think he was as harshly bullied as some people are saying. He never wore trench coats or anything of the sort to school.”
Not to make light on an assault on American democracy that resulted in the death of a local hero and severe injury to two others, I can’t help but be reminded of the famous “Assassination of Buckwheat skit from Saturday Night Live more than four decades ago. It was a spoof on the sensationalistic media coverage of the murder of John Lennon and assassination attempts on President Reagan and Pope John Paul II.
The parody noted that all of the would-be assassins had three names. Check. They were loners. Check. They became “instant celebrities” because of incessant media coverage. Check. The only difference is that people in the community are genuinely surprised.
More importantly, Trump’s would-be assassin has something in common with more recent mass shooters that wasn’t the case with those in the early 1980s: an obsession with firearms. Not only was he a member of a local shooting club, but he’d also attempted to join his school’s rifle team. (He reportedly didn’t make it because he was a terrible shot.) And he was wearing a t-shirt for a YouTube channel devoted to guns and explosives.
