Thomas Crooks' Neighbors Break Silence: 'There Was Evil Around The Corner'

The world is still trying to wrap its head around the attempted assassination of former presidentDonald Trump that occurred at a rally in Pennsylvania on July 13.

As the investigation into a possible motive behind the shooting continues, neighbors of the shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, are breaking their silence as they try to grapple with the reality of the "evil" that lurked down the street.

Shortly after the suspect was identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, the FBI and local law enforcement swarmed the Crooks’ neighborhood and home in an attempt to uncover any clues that could lead to a possible motive.

The 20-year-old shooter was from Bethel Park, a predominantly white suburb that is wealthier than the greater Pittsburgh metropolitan area.

Dan Grzybek, a county council representative for the district, including Bethel Park, described it as politically varied. County election records show President Joe Biden won the precinct containing the Crooks' home by a slim margin of 52% of the vote.

Over one week after the shooting, more people are beginning to come forward, including local residents.

"That's sheer fear. If [Trump] had his head turned, he would've had his brains blown out, and that was manufactured around the corner from my house," a neighbor, who lives a few houses down from the Crooks family, said, per Fox News. "There was such evil around the corner. We're always going to have a scar from what happened and how close to us [it was]."

Another neighborhood runner, who would pass by the Crooks family home several times on her jog, told the news station that while she tried to "look over and smile and say hello," the 20-year-old would "look up as though nobody had been passing him."

That same woman said she was shocked when she heard the news, but it got more "surreal" the moment she realized the gunman lived closer to her home than she thought. "When I first thought about the shooter being in Butler, I thought, 'Wow, that's in my backyard.' It ended up being closer. All of a sudden, it's a neighbor," she said.

Two FBI agents questioned one neighborhood resident for about a half hour a few days ago, who claimed that he could "not have imagined the depths to which they investigated" the neighborhood.

"They wanted to know whether I noticed any unusual activity, any unusual noises, whether I noticed people from the house [in the neighborhood]," the neighbor told Fox. "They asked if I might know anybody in the neighborhood who might know more than me."

The day before the shooting, Crooks visited a shooting range where he was a member to practice his shooting skills, according to a law enforcement official. On Saturday morning, he stopped at Home Depot to purchase a five-foot ladder, then proceeded to a gun store to buy 50 rounds of ammunition, the official noted.

Afterward, Crooks drove his Hyundai Sonata roughly an hour north to attend Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. He parked his vehicle outside the rally, where he had concealed an improvised explosive device in the trunk, linked to a transmitter he carried with him, the official stated.

Several of Crooks’ former classmates have come forward, with some claiming he was quite the “loner” while others said he was often the target of bullies. He was also allegedly labeled the “school shooter.”

The FBI has looked into the 20-year-old’s search history, finding that there were Google searches for Harvey Lee Oswald and JFK’s assassination, mass shooter Ethan Crumbley, photos of both Donald Trump and Joe Biden, as well as the Democratic National Convention.

While the reason behind the attempted assassination is still unclear, Pennsylvania State Police records reveal that over 20 firearms registered to Crooks' father were kept at the family's residence.

Furthermore, both Crooks and his father were affiliated with the Clairton Sportsmen’s Club, which boasts around 2,000 members and includes a rifle shooting range approximately 200 yards in length, as reported by CNN, which examined satellite images of the area.

“The Club fully admonishes the senseless act of violence that occurred,” Rob Bootay, a lawyer for the club, said, adding that he could not “make any additional commentary in relation to this matter in light of pending law enforcement investigations.”