Trump’s Would-Be Assassin Was A Registered Republican

While Republicans have been accusing U.S. President Joe Biden of "ordering" the botched assassination of his rival, defeated ex-president Donald Trump, relatives and friends of the gunman, Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, said he was a registered Republican.

Relatives and friends of the gunman, Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, said he was a registered Republican. I Photo: Bethel Park School District

Biden condemned the assassination attempt on Trump, urging all Americans to denounce such violence, Graeme Baker reported for BBC News. The slain gunman’s father, Matthew Crooks, was completely dumbfounded by the tragic event and wished to talk with law enforcement, the New York Post also reported.

The Associated Press (AP) reported that Trump’s ear was not hit by a bullet from the AR-14 semiautomatic rifle used but was wounded when glass shards flew from a teleprompter that Crooks had shattered with one round.

Crooks also killed a member of the crowd and injured two others at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. The gunman was shot dead by Secret Service agents wielding .50-caliber Barrett sniper rifles.