The 20-year-old Pennsylvania shooter who tried to kill former President Donald Trump did exactly what anti-gun violence activists have long fought to prevent: He sought out a like-minded person who became famous for a massacre: Oxford High School shooter Ethan Crumbley.
In a meeting with lawmakers on Friday, the FBI and the US Secret Service revealed that they had found a photo of Crumbley’s mugshot on the cellphone of would-be Trump assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks, who had also researched the Oxford shooter and his parents online, according to CNN.
The news didn’t surprise Steve St. Juliana, whose 14-year-old daughter, Hana, was among four students killed in the 2021 Oxford High School shooting.
“It’s well established that all these killers are learning about what’s happened before, so it’s not really a surprise,” said Steve St. Juliana, who participated in a march against gun violence in Oxford last month. He and his eldest daughter are also part of a notoriety movement, which encourages the media not to overly publicize a mass shooter’s name and image to avoid giving him the notoriety he seeks, which could inspire other potential killers.
St. Juliana said that when he learned that Trump’s would-be assassin was researching the Oxford shooter and his parents, the notoriety aspect was “the first thing that came to mind.”
“This just confirms what my daughter and I have been striving for – no notoriety,” St. Juliana said. “This is a perfect example of why … it feeds on itself.”
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Forensic psychologist Colin King, who interviewed the Oxford shooter and testified at various hearings regarding the juvenile’s life-without-parole sentence, said he suspects the Trump shooter was seeking information in the Oxford case.
Expert: Trump assassination candidate used Crumbley ‘as a mentor’
“It appears that he investigated the Oxford shooter and sort of used him as a mentor to perpetuate violence against former President Trump,” King said. “But it appears that he was looking for a high-profile target who would somehow gain notoriety, whether in life or in death.”
Andy Arena, the former head of the Detroit FBI, said he also wasn’t surprised to learn that Crooks was researching the Crumbleys.
“There are a lot of similarities between the two shooters: two young men, both seem to have had a hard time fitting in,” Arena said.
Both shooters also reportedly struggled with mental health issues, as the FBI and Secret Service said they learned that Crooks was also seeking information about major depressive disorder — which Ethan Crumbley had been diagnosed with — and treatment for depressive episodes.
“It seems like this was someone who also suffered from mental illness, which was either unnoticed or untreated,” King said, noting another similarity between Crooks and Crumbley, who wrote in her diary that her parents ignored her pleas about mental health concerns.
Perhaps more remarkable are the weapons that were used in the Oxford High School shootings and at the Trump rally.
Oxford shooter and Trump shooter both used their fathers’ guns
Investigators said Crooks used a gun belonging to his father to try to kill the former president; Crumbley also used a gun purchased by his father to shoot up his school.
James and Jennifer Crumbley, the parents of the Oxford shooter, made history this year by becoming the first American parents to be convicted in a school shooting committed by their son. Two separate juries found that the Crumbleys failed to secure a gun in their home and ignored their son’s mental health issues, and were therefore responsible for the lives their child took.
Their son is serving a life sentence without parole. The parents were sentenced to 10 years in prison. All three Crumbleys have appealed.
According to the FBI and the Secret Service, as CNN reported, Crooks conducted extensive online research on major political figures from both parties, including Trump and Biden, and their political events. Three days after the Trump campaign announced its rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, Crooks searched for the date and location of the Democratic National Convention, which takes place in August in Chicago, and the location of Trump’s rally in Butler, where a sniper shot and killed Crooks seconds after he opened fire on Trump from a rooftop about 500 feet away.
One of the bullets hit Trump in the right ear. A firefighter, Corey Comperatore, who was attending the rally with his family, was killed. Two other rally-goers were seriously injured.
Contact Tresa Baldas: tbaldas@freepress.com
