Investigators say the cellphone of Thomas Matthew Crooks, who attempted to kill former President Donald Trump, contained a mugshot of a Michigan school shooter and other information from the 2021 attack that left four people dead.
In the days before Crooks took aim at Trump, the 20-year-old gunman searched online for information about Ethan Crumbley, who shot and killed four classmates at Oxford High School on Nov. 30, 2021, and Crumbley’s parents, who were convicted of involuntary manslaughter earlier this year, CNN reported.
Crumbley is currently serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole after he pled guilty. His parents, James and Jennifer Crumbley, were found guilty in separate trials after prosecutors said they exhibited gross negligence when they failed to take action as their son’s mental health deteriorated and to properly secure the firearm Ethan used to carry out the shooting.
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Their convictions set a new legal precedent on who is able to be held criminally accountable for a mass shooting.
The latest details of the investigation around Crooks came to light in a briefing between the FBI, U.S. Secret Service and lawmakers, as well as from people familiar with the ongoing probe, according to CNN.
Officials also reportedly said their review has so far shown Crooks looked at websites for how to create explosives and even took a screenshot of a livestream of the Butler, Pennsylvania, Trump rally just moments before he pulled the trigger on his AR-15.
Other details shared during Wednesday's briefing included how Crooks’ parents, Mary and Matthew Crooks, told law enforcement they were worried about their son after he went missing only hours before the shooting.
Still, investigators have been unable to pin down a possible motive for Crooks’ attack on Trump, as Crooks has left behind little clues to his ideological or political leanings at the time of last Saturday’s shooting.
Officials have theorized that Crooks was seeking to commit a mass shooting and Trump’s campaign stop in Pennsylvania presented an opportunity close to home for him, a U.S official briefed on the matter told CNN.
