Thomas Matthew Crooks, who tried to assassinate former President Donald Trump on Saturday, once appeared in an advertisement for the multinational investment company BlackRock Inc., according to Bloomberg.
The link was revealed as federal authorities began probing Crooks’ background to discern a specific motive for his attack on Trump during a campaign speech in Butler, Pennsylvania.
BlackRock said its connection to Crooks was incidental. The 20-year-old appeared as an unpaid extra in a 2022 ad the money management giant filmed at Bethel Park High School, which Crooks attended before graduating the year the ad was shot, according to the report.
The company did not describe the ad but said it no longer would be used and it would be turned over to authorities.
“The assassination attempt on former President Trump is abhorrent. We’re thankful former President Trump wasn’t seriously injured, and thinking about all the innocent bystanders and victims of this awful act, especially the person who was killed,” BlackRock said in a statement.
A video of what appeared to be the ad featuring Crooks circulated on social media on Sunday.
🚨Trumps Shooter “Thomas Mathew Crooks” was featured in a BLACKROCK COMMERCIAL in 2023!!! pic.twitter.com/fdbkfHOS04
— The Real World Fan Page (@BeOutTheMatrix) July 15, 2024
BlackRock was denounced in 2022 for using its money to push society to the left.
Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis criticized CEO Larry Fink at the time, according to USA Today.
Is the BlackRock connection simply a strange coincidence?
“I think it’s undemocratic of major asset managers to use their power to influence societal outcomes,” Patronis said. “If Larry, or his friends on Wall Street, want to change the world — run for office. Start a non-profit. Donate to the causes you care about. Using our cash, however, to fund BlackRock’s social-engineering project isn’t something Florida ever signed up for.”
Until his death at the hands of a federal sniper, Crooks worked as a dietary aide at the Bethel Park Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, administrator Marcie Grimm said, according to ABC News.
Grimm said he passed a background check and “performed his job without concern.”
Kevin Rojek, Pittsburgh special agent in charge for the FBI, said officials have yet to decipher a political ideology to which Crooks subscribed.
“We’re looking into his background, his day-to-day activities, any writings, and social media posts that might help us identify what led to this shooting. And we have not seen anything threatening,” Rojek said.
Crooks “was somebody who came across as lonely a lot,” said Jameson Myers, who said he attended both elementary and high school with the suspect.
The would-be assassin was “more socially reserved” and someone who “didn’t have a ton of friends,” he said.
“I was friends with him — he never acted, like, by any means a political revolutionary,” Myers said.
He said his former classmate tried to make the school’s rifle team but was rejected.
“He didn’t just not make the team, he was asked not to come back because [of] how bad of a shot he was,” Myers said. “It was considered, like, dangerous.”
Who, exactly, is Thomas Crooks, the Bethel Park man who tried to assassinate Donald Trump? https://t.co/alBBxq2mKq
— Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (@PittsburghPG) July 15, 2024
Classmate Zoe Materkowski said Crooks was “just a quiet kid.”
“He was a loner,” said Jason Kohler, who was a year ahead of Crooks in school. “He would sit alone at lunch.”
Matthew Crooks, the shooter’s father, said he was trying to figure out “what the hell is going on” concerning his son but would “wait until I talk to law enforcement” before speaking, according to CNN.
