The FBI identified the shooter, who is dead, as Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania. A motive wasn't clear.

The FBI identified the shooter, who is dead, as Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania. A motive was not clear.

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Bethel Park is a predominantly white, relatively well-to-do city in the southern reaches of greater Pittsburgh. The site of the rally, Butler, is about an hour’s drive north of Pittsburgh.

Pennsylvania voter records listed a Thomas Matthew Crooks with the same address and birth date as a registered Republican, though it was not clear from the records when that was put in place.

  • tillary@sh.itjust.works
    5213·
    4 months ago

    Feel like I’m gonna be posting this a lot today. Pennsylvania uses a closed party primary voting system. If you’re a liberal voting in the primaries, it made the most sense to register Republican in Pennsylvania to vote for someone like Nikki Haley if you despise Trump. Don’t want to say this is what happened, just that we shouldn’t jump to false flag conspiracy conclusions right now.

    • jeffw@lemmy.worldM
      243·
      4 months ago

      I remember canvassing for Bernie back in 2016 and I knocked on a few doors of people who said “oh sorry, I switched to Republican to try to block Trump”. This is completely anecdotal evidence but it does happen. It’s rare though.

      Edit: did a touch of cyber stalking… dad is a registered libertarian, mom is a democrat

      • tillary@sh.itjust.works
        92·
        4 months ago

        Yeah, just one of those stupid games we have to play until we get with the times and implement a ranked choice voting system…

    • EnderWiggin@lemmy.world
      16·
      4 months ago

      He was registered back in 2021. Not sure this has much bearing on the 2024 primaries. He could have been a right leaning person who didn’t like Trump. Those people exist. Basically, most libertarians.

    • kescusay@lemmy.world
      151·
      4 months ago

      This is important to know, but at the same time, the majority of registered members in both parties in Pennsylvania voted for the front-runner, and given his youth (20), the primary was his first election involving presidential candidates.

      We need to wait until the facts about him come out. Very little is currently known beyond the party registration and the YouTube gun channel.

    • mctoasterson@reddthat.com
      103·
      4 months ago

      This is the right answer. It is entirely possible and feasible to register as a party you don’t agree with for strategic reasons such as voting in primaries for important state offices etc. Millions of people do this across various states.

    • ImADifferentBird@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      82·
      4 months ago

      And just because he was registered as Republican, doesn’t mean he was necessarily a Trump supporter. After all, those Lincoln Project guys had to come from somewhere.