A new report claims that would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks’s parents contacted law enforcement officials hours before he shot former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday.
A source told Fox News that the shooter’s parents told local police officials that their son was missing and they were concerned about Crooks’s welfare. The outlet noted that police officials have not revealed any actions that were taken after the phone call with the would-be assassin’s parents or if police officials knew that Crooks had possession of his father’s AR-15 rifle.
On Wednesday, Collin Rugg, co-owner of Trending Politics, shared a video of Fox News host Harris Faulkner announcing the breaking news concerning the shooter’s parents.
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Rugg tweeted, “BREAKING: Thomas Matthew Crooks’ parents called law enforcement *before* the rally, telling them that their son was missing and they were ‘worried.’ They knew something was up.”
In the video, Faulkner said that Fox News was being told that the shooter’s parents “were looking for him in the hours leading up to the shooting” and that the parents had contacted law enforcement.
“We don’t know the texture or the details of their concern,” she said. “So, in other words, were they worried that he had a gun? Were they worried? You know, what were they worried about? Were they worried that he was gonna try to attempt to kill a sitting president and then turn into an assassin?”
According to Fox News, both the shooter’s father and mother have cooperated with Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) investigators as law enforcement officials try to determine Crooks’s motive for attempting to assassinate the former president, which led to Trump and two other victims being injured, as well as the death of retired fire chief Corey Comperatore.
Fox News reported that while officials have investigated Crooks’ phone and social media accounts, the results of the investigation have not yet been released. The outlet previously reported that Crooks was a registered Republican who had donated to a progressive Democratic campaign in 2021.
According to Fox News, Crooks and his father, a registered Libertarian, were both members of a local gun club. Meanwhile, the shooter’s mother is registered as a Democrat.
According to CNN, Crooks worked as a dietary aide at a nursing home and requested Saturday off since he had “something to do.”
