When a mass shooting occurs, the killer often leaves a trail of clues. Today, it’s usually a sinister manifesto, pleas for help on social media or an incriminating search history.
But Americans have been left with a sea of questions and few answers following the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump.
The shooter, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, has virtually no online presence. He has no known TikTok, Instagram or Snapchat. He has no friends who have given the thumbs up.
And, like other American assassins in history, his political stance is ambiguous. He was registered as a Republican and was described by a classmate as “definitely conservative.” However, Crooks also donated a small sum to a progressive movement in 2021.
Dr Rachel Toles, a licensed clinical psychologist based in California who specializes in the study of violent criminals, told DailyMail.com that politics may have had little to do with the shooting, as surprising as that may seem.
Thomas Matthew Crooks attempted to kill former President Trump at a campaign rally with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle. He was shot dead at the scene by Secret Service agents.
From her experience, Dr. Toles said that people in these situations often suffer from an extremely damaged ego and have a desire to eliminate someone who has what they covet most, which could be success, popularity or good looks.
Former President Trump may have represented something Crooks deeply desired: fame, success or respect.
‘Trump gets more attention than anyone else on the planet.
“And now we’re talking about an invisible child that no one talked to at school unless they wanted to make fun of him,” Dr. Toles said.
He added: ‘We’re talking about someone who feels incredibly invisible and is targeting the most visible man on the planet.
“So I think it’s more about that than about Donald Trump as a politician.”
Dr. Nicholas Kardaras, who has psychoanalyzed several high-profile teenage killers over the years, agreed that it could be that “Trump represents the alpha male that he[the shooter]couldn’t be at school.”
But he is not convinced that it existed. No Political influence is at stake here.
Dr. Kardaras said Crooks may have been radicalized by the extreme sides of either the conservative or liberal movement.
The killer’s donation to Democrats in 2021 may imply that he opposed Trump and viewed him as a threat to democracy after the January 6 riot at the Capitol.
Or maybe he felt Trump wasn’t conservative enough during his presidency, which has been a criticism from the far right during this campaign because of Trump’s softening on abortion, for example.
Psychologists spoke to DailyMail.com about a number of common factors that lead to violent criminals and said murderers have more in common, generally, with mass murderers than with serial killers.
Both Dr. Kardaras and Dr. Toles believe these killers have more in common with mass shooters than serial killers or people who kill someone in their personal lives.
Serial killers tend to be motivated by an internal drive to dominate and hunt other humans, and tend to have high self-esteem, Dr. Toles said.
In contrast, people who attempt to shoot political figures or bring a gun into a school are usually doing so to attract attention.
At this time, authorities are unsure of what Mr. Crooks’ personal beliefs were.
Therefore, experts can only make predictions based on what science has discovered so far.
There is a long history of FBI and academic experts studying the minds of violent murderers, mass shooters, and serial killers.
Dr Kardaras said political assassins typically fall into two categories: those who are driven by the idea that their actions will bring about major political or social change and those who are driven by the idea that assassinating someone will make them “immortal”.
Both of them likely have some sort of mental health issue, whether it be delusions, depression, or paranoia.
Take John Wilkes Booth, the man who assassinated former President Abraham Lincoln in 1865.
Booth did so under the impression that killing President Lincoln would lead to a revitalization of the South after the Civil War, Dr. Kardaras said.
He became convinced that his actions could change the course of history.
Previous assassination attempts against sitting presidents were carried out by assassins motivated by politics and insanity or infamy, which are Dr. Kardara’s two theories.
But killers are far more likely to be motivated by attention, infamy and the general illusion that murder will make them “somebody” than by politics, as Mr. Booth was.
Take assassins like John Hinckley Jr., who attempted to shoot former President Ronald Reagan in the belief that doing so would impress actress Jodie Foster, whom he had become obsessed with after seeing her act in the film Taxi Driver.
Mr. Hinckley called his attempt to assassinate President Reagan “the greatest love offering in the history of the world.”
Other examples of this type of killer include Mark Chapman, who murdered John Lennon to draw attention to the book The Catcher in the Rye and rid the world of “the biggest fraud of all.”
They are convinced that their actions will satisfy their delusional desires or satisfy their deep desire for attention.
It could be that Mr Crooks was in this camp, starved for attention, Dr Toles said.
According to him Secret Service Exception Case Study Projectwhich is one of the most extensive studies of murders or attempted murders, many more killers are driven by delusions and fame than by a desire to change the political landscape.
Study author and psychologist Robert Fein, who interviewed 83 people who attempted to commit murder, He told NPR“It was very, very rare that the primary motive was political, although there were several attackers who seemed to disguise their motives with some political rhetoric.”
The shooter had an interest in firearms and was bullied at school, former classmates shared
Most commonly, Dr. Fein said, these people “experienced failure after failure, and decided that instead of being ‘nobody,’ they wanted to be ‘somebody.'”
In Dr. Kardaras’s eyes, Mr. Crooks was likely motivated by a combination of these factors.
He said it appears the gunman may have had a lower, “I’ll prove it to you” mentality, but “the fact that he targeted a political figure shows me there was some, I would infer there was some political agenda there as well.”
Another factor that may have contributed to the attempted assassination of former President Trump is the fact that Crooks had an interest in firearms since at least high school.
He tried out for his high school’s shooting team, but failed to land a spot on the team.
He was also a member of a local shooting range, The Clairton Sportsmen’s Club, the BBC reported.
Dr. Kardaras said an early interest in guns and violent video games is incredibly common among school shooters.
“Not all kids who play violent video games become school shooters, but all school shooters have been deeply immersed in violent first-person shooter games and then, secondarily, have also had access to guns,” he said.
It’s unclear whether Crooks played video games, but if he did, it’s possible that this would have increased his aggression and blurred the line between reality and fiction, he said.
He explained that being constantly immersed in violent graphics could influence your aggression and how you respond to the world around you.
He added: “If you handle wolves, you will become a wolf.”
