AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
The FBI is leading the investigation into the shooting last night against former President Donald Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania. Trump is safe, but one spectator was killed, and two others were critically injured. Joining us now to discuss what we know about the investigation is NPR justice correspondent Ryan Lucas. Good morning, Ryan.
RYAN LUCAS, BYLINE: Good morning.
RASCOE: The FBI overnight identified the suspected gunman. Who is he? And what do we know about him so far?
LUCAS: Right. The FBI identified the suspect as Thomas Matthew Crooks, a 20-year-old from Bethel Park, Pa. Bethel Park is about 40 miles or so from Butler, where the Trump rally was taking place. Our colleague Stephen Fowler has confirmed that Crooks was a registered Republican. That's according to Pennsylvania voter registration records. Crooks also donated $15 in 2021 to ActBlue, which is a Democratic-allied organization. That's according to FEC data.
Now, Crooks was killed last night by the Secret Service when agents returned fire. The FBI, as you said, is leading the investigation. The Secret Service and the ATF are also involved. Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement last night that violence like this is an attack on American democracy, and he said the department will bring every available resource to bear in this investigation.
RASCOE: I know it's early in this investigation, and there's a lot of moving parts right now. But what will the FBI and other agencies be looking at?
LUCAS: Right. It's still less than 24 hours since the shooting took place. So it really is the early hours. So there is a lot that's unknown. The first step was to confirm the identity of the gunman. That appears to be done. Investigators are going to be looking at whether this individual acted alone or was working with others. They'll look at the gun - how and where it was obtained. And, of course, they'll be looking for a potential motive.
At a press conference around midnight last night, FBI special agent Kevin Rojek said investigators had not identified a motive yet. Investigators will be digging through the suspect's social media for that, phone records, computer, web search history. They'll talk to people who the suspected shooter was in contact with in recent days and weeks. All of that can help provide useful information as investigators try to understand why this individual decided to take this sort of action.
RASCOE: This is the first such attack since the attempt on President Reagan's life in 1981. So how will this be handled?
LUCAS: Well, obviously, this is a huge deal. The attorney general's statement about this being an attack on American democracy, I think, reflects that as well. The Secret Service is responsible for protecting the former president, who, of course, is also running for president this year. A former Secret Service director, William Ralph Basham Jr., told NPR that the fact that shots were fired at all was a failure on the Secret Service's part. He says this never should have happened. And the agency is going to have to do an in-depth investigation into how this was able to go down.
Now, the Secret Service falls under the Department of Homeland Security. DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement last night that the department is working with both the Trump and Biden campaigns and doing all that it can to ensure their safety and security going forward.
RASCOE: How concerned should Americans be about political violence going forward?
LUCAS: Well, look, this didn't happen in a vacuum. There has been a steady simmer of threats of political violence for years now. It's been growing more and more intense. Local election workers have reported a spike in threats - government officials, federal officials, judges, too. And we've, of course, seen actual political violence.
Back in 2017, there was a shooting at a practice ahead of the congressional baseball game that seriously wounded Republican Congressman Steve Scalise. A man with a hammer entered former Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's House and bludgeoned her husband just a few years ago. And, of course, there was the attack on January 6 on the U.S. Capitol. The attorney general has warned that a democracy cannot survive if its citizens throw out the rule of law and decide that violence is an acceptable way to solve political differences.
RASCOE: That's NPR justice correspondent Ryan Lucas. Thanks so much.
LUCAS: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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