Crime
Details start to emerge about shooter at Trump rally as investigation continues
![](https://www.todayville.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/tvrd-cs-trump-shooter-thomas-matthew-crooks-image-2024-07-15.jpg)
From The Center Square
Crooks graduated from Bethel Park School District in 2022. Community members said Crooks lived with his parents, according to multiple media reports.
U.S. Secret Service agents killed the 20-year-old Pennsylvania man who targeted former President Donald Trump at a rally on Saturday as investigators continue to search for a motive.
The FBI identified Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, as the shooter.
Crooks shot at Trump during a rally in Butler, Pa., Saturday evening. Trump was struck in the ear. The former president urged supporters to continue to “fight” as U.S. Secret Service agents moved him from the stage to a waiting vehicle. Trump later called for unity after the shooting.
Crooks graduated from Bethel Park School District in 2022. Community members said Crooks lived with his parents, according to multiple media reports.
Crooks crawled on the roof of a manufacturing plant about 130 yards away from the stage at Butler Farm Show grounds, The New York Post reported. He fired five to seven shots before he was shot and killed by Secret Service agents.
A local police officer confronted Crooks on the roof shortly before the assassination attempt, the Associated Press reported Sunday. When Crooks pointed his rifle at the officer, the officer retreated, the AP reported. Crooks then began shooting at Trump.
Authorities found an AR-style semi-automatic rifle at the scene. Crooks was wearing a shirt for a gun-focused YouTube channel called Demolition Ranch.
The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday that law enforcement found explosives inside Crooks’ car, which was found parked near the Pennsylvania rally. Bomb technicians were investigating, the Journal reported.
Federal authorities have yet to reveal a motive for the shooting, but are investigating. As the work continues Sunday, investigators have made finding a motive and determining whether the shooter had accomplices top priorities.
Crooks was a registered Republican, according to state voter status records.
The shooter made one $15 donation to the liberal ActBlue political action committee on Jan. 20, 2021, which was Biden’s Inauguration Day, the Intercept reported.
Police have blocked off the streets near Crooks’ house, according to media reports.
Brett Rowland
Investigative Reporter
Crime
Venezuelan Migrant Says She’d ‘Return’ To Country After Living In Housing Taken Over By Venezuelan Gang
![](https://www.todayville.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/tvrd-dc-venezuelan-gangs-take-over-appartments-denver-image-2024-09-07.jpg)
From the Daily Caller News Foundation
By Hailey Gomez
A Venezuelan immigrant living in migrant housing in Aurora, Colorado, appeared to fight back tears while speaking to independent reporter Nick Shirley, saying she would return to her country after living in the U.S.
This week, the city of Aurora faced major pushback from Republicans after footage surfaced online of armed men inside an apartment complex in late August. Shirley was seen visiting various migrant housing units before stopping at the viral location to interview residents where the armed men had been spotted.
Shirley spoke with a Venezuelan woman who showed him the poor living conditions her family endures, stating she pays $1,200 per month for the apartment. The migrant stated that the electricity and hot water in her apartment weren’t working, telling Shirley that the landlord hadn’t accepted any payment for the “past couple of months.”
“Does your father still have to pay rent?” Shirley asked as they walked around her father’s apartment.
“The owner is no longer receiving any kind of payment, because he is also taking all this, that the gangs and the mafia are taking advantage of all of this to get us out as if we were dogs and it’s not fair,” the migrant stated, according to a translation.
Shirley asked if gangs had been charging people, to which the migrant replied, “no.” The independent reporter then asked if her life in the U.S. was what she expected after crossing the border.
WATCH:
“No, never. I would have stayed in my country. They say that here everything is different, the laws, everyone gets a good job, you get ahead, you can save money to take back to your country,” the migrant stated. “But not everything is as they say, the American dream is simply just a dream. When you get here you wake up, it’s not like they say.”
Shirley then pressed the migrant, asking in Spanish if she would take a “flight or opportunity to go back” to her home country.
“With all the love in the world I would return to my country,” the migrant said.
Republican lawmakers on Friday sent a letter criticizing the Biden-Harris administration’s “open border policies” and local “sanctuary” policies over the reported presence of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, which allegedly terrorized several apartment buildings in Aurora.
Reportedly beginning as a prison gang in 2014 within the northern Venezuelan state of Aragua, Tren de Aragua has grown into one of Venezuela’s largest criminal organizations. With around 5,000 members and stretching internationally across Latin America and the U.S., the gang has allegedly been connected to several high-profile crimes within the U.S., including the kidnapping and strangling of a Florida man last year.
This week, the Aurora Police Department announced the arrest of two confirmed Tren de Aragua gang members, Jhonnarty Dejesus Pacheco-Chirinos and Jhonardy Jose Pacheco-Chirinos, following a July 28 shooting that left two men hospitalized with serious injuries.
Crime
Officials Arrest Father Of Suspected Georgia School Shooter
![](https://www.todayville.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/tvrd-dc-georgia-high-school-shooting-image-2024-09-06.jpg)
From the Daily Caller News Foundation
By Hailey Gomez
The father of 14-year-old Colt Gray, the suspected shooter at Apalachee High School, was arrested by Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) officials, according to a Thursday press release.
GBI officials announced the arrest of 54-year-old Colin Gray in connection with the Georgia high school shooting on Wednesday, which killed four people and injured nine others. Colin Gray is charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder and eight counts of cruelty to children, according to officials.
Colt Gray was arrested Wednesday morning after officials had received calls of a shooting occurring at the high school. GBI Director Chris Hosey and Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith confirmed during a press conference the 14-year-old had been a student at the school and will be “tried as an adult.”
UPDATE #2 – September 5, 2024:
In coordination with District Attorney Brad Smith, the GBI has arrested Colin Gray, age 54, in connection to the shooting at Apalachee High School. Colin is Colt Gray’s father.
(1/3)
— GA Bureau of Investigation (@GBI_GA) September 5, 2024
Local authorities had made contact with the Gray family in 2023 following anonymous tips to the FBI about alleged threats.
Colin Gray had allegedly bought the AR-15-style rifle used in the attack for his son at a local gun store as a Christmas present, a source told CNN. The timeline provided to officials by the 54-year-old father puts the purchase of the gun allegedly months after officials had first contacted the family to investigate school shooting threats made online, the outlet reported.
The victims of the incident have been identified by GBI officials as 14-year-old Mason Schermerhorn, 14-year-old Christian Angulo, 39-year-old Richard Aspinwall and 53-year-old Christina Irimie.
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