Trump Shooter Identified

There has been a lot of confusion and misinformation circulating the web. Hopefully, this helps to clear things up.

*Normally, I wouldn’t give the shooter the courtesy of naming him or showing his photo. However, with the vast amount of misinformation and hoaxes flying around the internet right now, I feel duty-bound to make sure that Chapter and Verse readers have the correct information.

Late Saturday night, after it was leaked to the media, the FBI positively identified the shooter as a 20-year-old young man from Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, named Thomas Matthew Crooks. The shooter’s family is cooperating with police. The gun used has been described as an “AR-style rifle,” which was bought legally by his father six months ago. These are all the confirmed photos of the shooter so far:

Immediately after the name leaked to the NYP, the entire internet went full Reddit-Investigator mode, and pretty soon, there was a photo that people claimed was the shooter, along with a video of the person in the photo declaring his name was Thomas, and he hated Republicans. However, the man seen in the photo and video is NOT the shooter. He is actually an internet troll who thought it’d be funny to make a parody video after his photo began circulating. He has since locked down his social media, which only confused things more. But, if you see this guy:

This is NOT the shooter. This is an X user who goes by Jewgazing. Please do not fall for his stupid hoax. Rumor is he is looking to sue all the media that ran with his likeness last night.

Regardless, other information that the collective internet turned up was verified by multiple sources. It is true that the shooter donated to a PAC via ActBlue on the day of Biden’s inauguration. It is also true that eight months later, it appears he registered to vote as a Republican.

Is this confusing? Yes. When I looked into the Progressive Turnout Project, I found out that they are a scummy organization that was sending out aggressive fundraising emails at the time. Based on Ryan Grim’s reporting, it is entirely possible that the then-17-year-old was tricked into donating, and even if he donated to them on purpose, he was likely tricked into donating.

As for his voter registration, I’ve seen people claiming he was probably part of the movement to mess with Trump in the Primary. It’s possible, I know, because I’ve done it. I am registered to vote as a Democrat because, in my locale, the Democrat primary is the election, and by the time the GOP primary gets to me, it’s already decided.

My voter registration record says I registered in 2014. I did, as a Republican. I’ve switched parties several times since then. So, this means that the registration date on his record does not mean that the shooter was always a Republican. But since we can’t see any history of party switching or find out how he voted, we have no way of knowing.

There are no known, verified social media accounts belonging to the shooter, but there have been a few fake “parody” ones created. While it seems strange that a 20-year-old would not have a social media account in today’s world, I have a 23-year-old son who does not have a social media presence, so it is not impossible. It is also possible that the FBI pulled down any accounts before anyone had a clue where to look. We won’t know until the FBI releases their investigation.

The fact that we need to rely on the FBI for information is another problem in all this. We are supposed to trust the same FBI that:

• used information they knew was false to get FISA warrants and spy on the 2016 Trump campaign,

• had a couple of top agents swear they’d do anything to stop Trump in 2016,

• colluded with the Democrats to create the false Russia narrative,

• suppressed the Hunter Biden laptop,

• knew about the Bidens’ shady business dealings and did nothing,

• raided Mar-A-Lago, and tampered with the evidence,

• never found the SCOTUS leaker, the DNC J6 Bomber, or figured out what happened in Vegas,

I could go on, but you get the point. The Secret Service isn’t doing much better these days. Biden picked Kimberly Cheatle to run the department in 2022 and said it was because, “When Kim served on my security detail when I was vice president, we came to trust her judgment and counsel.” Since then, she has made DEI one of her top priorities and said she wanted the force to be 30% women by 2030. Well, this is the result:

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Lorraine Yuriar is a wife, mother, and lifelong conservative, currently stuck in a very blue state.