Why Did Crooks's Parents Report Him Missing Before The Rally?

Fox News: Thomas Crooks’ parents were looking for him on Saturday in the hours leading up to the rally...Called law enforcement to indicate that he was missing...call happened on Saturday before Crooks later opened fire... pic.twitter.com/EblJ9am07L

— Rantingly.com (@rantinglydotcom) July 17, 2024

Almost anything we might surmise, at least so far, about the Trump assassination attempt last Saturday has to be heavily hedged. The organs of state security are saying very little, and what they say is contradictory and often retracted days after it's said. But subject to that caveat, one data point stands out for me via the tweet above, the report that Crooks's parents were looking for him and had gone so far as to report him missing before the Butler rally Saturday afternoon.

A few people responded in the thread below the post that this seems pretty unusual -- Thomas Matthew Crooks was 20 years old, and although he was a little strange, he wasn't the sort of at-risk person you'd report missing as soon as you lost track of him, as you might with a toddler or an elderly person with dementia. This can only suggest to me that his parents had serious reason to wonder what he was up to. Per the timeline of events at ABC News,

On the day of the assassination attempt, he asked if he could borrow his father's AR-15-style rifle, saying he planned to go to a shooting range, sources said. Because Crooks' father had previously let him use the gun for target shooting, he was not suspicious that his son was planning anything of concern.

Really? If this was totally routine, how come they got antsy when he wasn't back by mid-afternoon? Normally if a 20-year-old is a couple hours late getting home on a Saturday, that's not a biggie. He had a phone, after all, and his parents could simply have called him for an update. Something's hinky here, as though his parents had reason to be more worried than they've let on. One of Crooks's schoolmates, Vincent Taormina, offers potential insight:

According to him, Crooks belonged to a group of friends who were known for their reclusive behavior and irregular attendance at school. The group allegedly made threats to carry out a school shooting during their freshman year.

“Everybody was saying it was Thomas who made a threat, and it was that friend group,” Taormina recalled. “Everyone was mainly blaming the friend group, but a name that kept coming up was Thomas.”

Despite these allegations and his absence from school for a few days following the incident, no severe disciplinary action was taken against Crooks. Taormina stressed that Crooks wasn’t a victim of severe bullying and questioned how the signs of his erratic behavior were overlooked by those around him, including his parents, who were both counselors.

“The signs were there, and somebody definitely had to look out,” Taormina said. “Somebody, whether he was talking to somebody, or somebody either just didn’t realize and just overlooked it, somebody should have known because he was not a loner.”

It sounds like somebody needs to take a closer look at that incident. This may also provide context for the earlier report that he was asked not to join his high school rifle team:

“Our old coach was a stickler, he trained Navy marksmen, so he knew people. He knew when someone’s not the greatest person,” the ex-classmate explained.

“We noticed a few things Thomas said and how he interacted with other people … He said some things that were kind of concerning,” the classmate said.

“You know, obviously, we’re using guns in a school setting, so you need to be very careful in that regard.”

“He made some crass jokes that weren’t appropriate when there are firearms in the school setting,” they said, without elaborating on what exactly Crooks said.

It sounds like somebody needs to follow up here, too, because it sounds like there were real warning signs about this guy. But adding to that question is the fact that both Crooks's parents were mental health counselors:

Among the swirling unanswered questions about what drove a 20-year-old Pennsylvania man to very nearly kill the former and potentially future president last weekend, focus has turned to the parents of the would-be assassin — both of whom are licensed professional counselors, according to the Pennsylvania Social Work Board.

Matthew Brian Crooks and Mary Elizabeth Crooks, residents of Bethel Park, Penn., hold active licenses as professional social workers. Records from the Pennsylvania Licensing Verification Service indicate that both have been licensed since 2002, with Mary obtaining her license in February and Matthew in March of that year. Their licenses remain valid until February 2025.

It's hard to avoid thinking that they knew enough about Crooks suddenly to become very worried when he didn't come home from the rifle range. It also raises questions about what the school knew and why, according to reports, there were no disciplinary records of the freshman-year threats to shoot up the school

But this in turn provides little conclusive information on Crooks's precise motive or whether he acted alone. According to the most recent reports,

Trump’s would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks had two cell phones and used three encrypted accounts overseas to communicate.

The FBI found Crooks’ second cell phone at his home with only 27 contacts, The Daily Mail reported.

Congressman Mike Waltz told Fox News host Jesse Watters that according to an FBI briefing, Crooks had multiple encrypted accounts and said more will come out Monday.

The caveat at the top of this post applies.