This Sunday, presents a special report: “The Plot to Kill Trump: One Year Later,” airing at 9P/8C. Find out how to watch here.

() Hours after a would-be assassin tried to kill Donald Trump, a federal agent visited the Pennsylvania home of suspected gunman Thomas Crooks and asked his father, “What makes your son tick?”

Matthew Crooks reportedly provided some information about the 20-year-old honors student he kept to himself and liked to shoot rifles, he seemed to be politically moderate but ultimately admitted, “I don’t know anything about my son.”

One year later, it’s arguably the same story for everyone.

The July 13, 2024, attempt on Trump’s life at the Butler Farm Show grounds in Pennsylvania wounded the Republican presidential candidate, critically injured two audience members and claimed the life of a 50-year-old attendee. A countersniper quickly shot Thomas Crooks in the head, forever silencing the one person who may have provided an explanation about why he would climb onto a roof with an AR-15-style rifle and try to kill the 45th president of the United States as he sought to recapture the White House.

A recent New York Times investigative report about Crooks details his apparent unraveling evinced by bizarre behavior and his online searches about mental health problems, such as “depression crisis” in the months leading up to the failed assassination. But the piece ultimately does not nail down a motive, and co-author Steve Eder concedes, “There are still plenty of questions about Mr. Crooks.”

Crooks acted alone and is not believed to have left behind any sort of “manifesto” that might explain his actions, and a top FBI official isn’t promising any neat resolutions.

“In some of these cases, the ‘there’ you’re looking for is not there,” Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino recently told Fox News when asked about attempts on Trump’s life, including the September 2024 arrest of a suspect who allegedly targeted the candidate at a Florida golf course. “It’s not there. If it was there, we would have told you.”

Thomas Crooks’ warning signs

Still, in hindsight, disturbing patterns have emerged about the young gunman who nearly altered the course of American history.

In many respects, the rail-thin Thomas Crooks led a nondescript life in Bethel Park, which is near Pittsburgh and about 60 miles from the site of the Trump campaign rally. He lived with his social worker parents and was employed as a dietary aide at Bethel Park Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, which said Crooks “performed his job without concern” and passed a background check.

In May 2024, he graduated with honors from the Community College of Allegheny County with an associate’s degree in science. He reportedly planned to transfer to Robert Morris University to pursue engineering.

Crooks was a registered Republican, according to state records, but donated $15 to a progressive political action committee the day that Democrat Joe Biden was sworn in as president in January 2021.

In his interview with authorities, Crooks’ father told an ATF agent his son was somewhere in the middle of the political spectrum and “would go back and forth and kind of argue both sides.”

“He mentioned Trump and Biden,” the agent, relaying the father’s comments, told a U.S. House task force that investigated the assassination attempt.

But privately, the younger Crooks appeared to be on a separate course beginning in 2023, CBS News reported this week in its own deep dive into the would-be assassin’s personal history.

Talking to, dancing with, himself

The year before the assassination attempt, Crooks bought a rifle from his father and frequented a local shooting range. The elder Crooks told investigators he would see his son dancing in his bedroom “throughout the night” and observed the boy talking to himself, with his hands constantly moving.

Thomas Crooks’ web surfing became increasingly private through encryption services and the use of a virtual private network, or VPN. But an examination of his trackable Internet usage in this timeframe suggests Crooks had an “increasing interest in news, explosives and ammo,” according to the CBS News report. 

In December 2023, he visited the White House digital archives about the first Trump administration. Crooks also reportedly emailed a company to complain that he was still waiting on a potent fuel that he had ordered. 

At the time of his death, Crooks, who had shown a gift for engineering projects, had been working on homemade explosives. Crude bombs were found in his Hyundai Sonata in Butler (along with a drone that he used to scope out the location). Agents who visited his parents after the shooting found explosive materials in his bedroom.

Thomas Crooks’ final hours

It has been widely reported that Crooks went to the shooting range on Friday, July 12, the day before the Trump campaign rally. He requested an absence from work for July 13, explaining to his bosses he had “something to do,” CNN reported. He reportedly told his coworkers he’d see them the following day.

Around 9:30 a.m. Saturday, Crooks purchased a ladder in Bethel Park and visited the area of the Butler Farm Show before returning home in the afternoon. His father gave him the rifle that Crooks would use in the assassination attempt, but his son told him he was going to the gun range as he had done so often previously, according to the congressional task force report.

Crooks bought 50 rounds of ammunition and returned to the Butler Farm Show grounds by mid-afternoon. His behavior and use of a “range finder” drew the attention of snipers who were set up at the Trump rally, but procedural failures are blamed for what happened next: Crooks was able to climb onto the roof of a building outside the security perimeter and get into position to fire at Trump, even though witnesses alerted police about the suspicious figure.

At 6:12 p.m. local time, Crooks fired eight bullets within six seconds at the stage where Trump was speaking and grazed the former president’s right ear, drawing blood. Secret Service agents swarmed Trump and rushed him away. Countersnipers neutralized Crooks, but the damage was done: His shots also wounded three audience members, one fatally.

Hours later, by the time authorities arrived at the Crooks household, word had leaked about the gunman’s identity.

Matthew Crooks reportedly opened the door and asked the group of police officers and federal agents, “Is it true? Did (my son) shoot Trump?”

“What makes you say that?” one of the agents asked.

The father replied: “The news called me.”