Authorities investigate whether Thomas Matthew Crooks’s father attempted to limit his son’s gun access before the Butler, Pennsylvania, assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump. Fox News reports that the father searched for ways to prevent his son from obtaining firearms months prior to the attack.
The reported developments are presented by outlets as new information that adds complexity to questions about how Crooks acquired the weapon used in the attempt. The Yahoo News headline similarly describes GOP lawmakers as being “blindsided” by the revelations and characterizes the circumstances as “awfully strange,” indicating political and oversight implications surrounding what investigators and lawmakers knew at the time.
While the outlets focus on different angles—one emphasizing the father’s alleged prior searches, the other highlighting lawmakers’ reaction—both reference the Butler event and the disclosure of additional details related to the shooter’s access to firearms.
