He grew up in a home filled with silence and was raised by a dad who acted like a ghost.
Thomas Matthew Crooks — the 20-year-old gunman who nearly assassinated Donald Trump a year ago Sunday — spent his childhood in a strange, emotionless environment dictated by a “very strict” father, according to a relative.
On July 13, 2024, Crooks opened fire on Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Pa., before he was shot dead by a Secret Service sniper. His motives and background have largely remained a mystery, but his first cousin Mark Crooks, 44, this week gave The Post a glimpse into his family’s odd and antisocial behavior.
The last time Mark saw Thomas, his sister and their parents was in March 2019 at their grandfather’s funeral, where the future assassin and his sibling “stood next to [parents Matthew and Mary] like statues.
“It’s like they were under strict orders. Like, they didn’t budge. It was really weird. We all said that,” Mark recalled.
Shortly thereafter, Matthew “pretty much told us, ‘You’ll never see us again,’” Mark said – and they didn’t.
Mark had no idea what Thomas “liked to do” in his later teenage years – and had no clue that the college science/engineering student was struggling with mental health issues, and was building homemade bombs in the months leading up to the shooting.
He said Crooks’ reclusive dad, Matthew Crooks, 54, did everything in his power to keep his family apart from his brother Mark Sr.’s family, even though both broods lived in Pennsylvania within an hour’s driving distance.
“My uncle kept to himself. He was like that his whole life – he didn’t want to be bothered by anybody. He kept his family away from us our entire life pretty much,” Mark Crooks said.
On the rare occasion when the first cousins would end up at their grandfather’s house together, Matthew “would lock the door and hide in [a] room,” Crooks recalled.
Thomas lived with his parents and older sister, Katherine, in a small, three-bedroom home in suburban Bethel Park. The homicidal Crooks traveled 260 miles to the Trump rally, climbed onto a rooftop 130 yards from the stage where Trump was delivering a speech, and began shooting with an AR-15 rifle.
He fired eight times, grazing the former president in the ear, killing rallygoer Corey Comperatore, 50, and seriously wounding David Dutch, 58, and James Copenhaver, 75.
When the call came in about his younger cousin’s violent act and demise, Mark felt “mixed emotions.”
“I was sad about it, but not as sad as you would be if you knew your family, knew your cousin and hung out with him. . . . I was more sad afterwards, thinking about his sister and how she was taking it, and for his mom and dad,” he explained. Matthew and Mary Crooks did not respond to requests for comment by The Post.
Since the shooting, Thomas’ family has become more reclusive – refusing all media interviews and ignoring relatives.
“My dad reached out to my uncle, his brother, multiple times – he left him messages and this and that – and my uncle just doesn’t get back to him. But that’s not unusual,” Mark said.
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