Though he was a registered Republican, he had given $15 to Act Blue earmarked for the âProgressive Turnout Projectâ on the day of President Joe Bidenâs inauguration in January 2021, according to Axios.
Crooks was focused on engineering and computing while at the community college, but a handful of written assignments show hints of a deep skepticism of the federal government and corporations.
A prompt asking students to consider whether engineers involved in NASAâs 1986 Challenger disaster acted ethically yielded a dubious reply.
Crooks blamed NASAâs administrators, who in pushing for the ill-fated launch « were trying to live up to the lofty promises they made to Congress which they were never going to be able to fulfill, » he wrote.
For a 2022 English assignment, Crooks wrote about George Orwellâs essay, « Shooting an Elephant. » Crooks called the essay « a powerful allegory warning against adopting imperialistic policies. »
« The writing maintains its significance as the themes in it apply to every form of tyrannical government many of which still exist today, and continue to send young men, much like Orwell, to carry out the âč dirty work of Empire, âș » Crooks wrote.
Crooks wrote about Mr. Trump at least once.
The essay was called « Why Nuclear Energy is the Key to a Cleaner Future, » and Crooks briefly touched on the proliferation of nuclear weapons, criticizing a decision Mr. Trump made during his first term.
« To prevent hostile nations from acquiring nuclear technology, America and its allies can stop sales of the technology to those nations and can enter into mutually beneficial agreements like the Iran deal, which effectively halted that nations (sic) nuclear program until President Trump withdrew from it, » Crooks wrote.
His writing also, at least once, focused in part on then-President Biden.
Crooks reviewed a 2021 opinion column that ran in The Washington Post, concluding that it persuasively argued against Mr. Bidenâs support for tuition-free community college.
« Liberals also tend to be in favor of free community college and, in fact, free college in general, » Crooks wrote. « So it is very interesting to see an author try to convince the other side using their pre-exisiting (sic) political concerns rather than trying to impress their own on to them »
In the summer of 2023, Crooks bought a rifle from his dad for $500 and signed up for a membership at a local shooting range. He became a regular at Clairton Sportsmenâs Club, about nine miles from his home, signing in to use the rifle range more than 40 times in the last 11 months of his life, records show. Around that time, records obtained by CBS News show he started using encryption services that masked some of his internet use, mixing those with more typical visits to sites like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and X.
His habits started to rapidly shift that fall. To his professors, he still appeared focused on getting straight Aâs and preparing to apply to the engineering programs at the University of Pittsburgh and Robert Morris University. But his online activity suggests his attention was elsewhere. He began to more frequently use an encrypted email service called Mailfence and a virtual private network called Mullvad. Both would shield his online life from anyone who might pry.
An analysis by CBS News of Crooksâ internet routines shows he developed an increasing interest in news, explosives and ammo, and secrecy. The records include nearly a year of Crooksâ activity on his collegeâs wireless internet network. They show hundreds of visits to websites ranging from his academic email account and discussion boards, to his bank, news sites, gaming platforms, social media, weapons blogs and Steelers fan sites.
Logs of Crooksâ on-campus internet activity, which CBS News obtained through a public records request, indicate that in the last months of his life, he became increasingly rigid about secrecy, shrouding his activities through encrypted services.
Two particular days â Dec. 6, 2023, and Jan. 24, 2024 â stand out. On Dec. 6, 2023, Crooks checked various news sites and the White House websiteâs archives from Mr. Trumpâs first administration, followed by visits to firearms websites. The following month, on Jan. 24, Crooks showed the single largest number of internet requests in the logs, at 1,364. He started to consistently use the VPN after that day.
In December 2023, a month before Crooksâ final semester started, his life began to split in two. He was focused on his college applications, and at the same time fixated on mass violence. One day, he emailed himself to review his personal statement for his application; on another, he emailed customer service to complain that the explosive fuel he ordered had not yet shipped. Investigators later concluded he would have been able to engineer bombs in his bedroom without his parents knowing.
Around this time, some in Crooksâ life did notice erratic behavior.
Crooksâ father told investigators that, in retrospect, he spotted signs of his sonâs declining mental health, according to excerpts of a Pennsylvania State Police report. Those excerpts were first made public in December by a House of Representatives task force on the attempted assassination.
« Crooksâ father explained that within the last year he observed several instances of his son dancing in his bedroom throughout the night, » a Pennsylvania investigator wrote. « He would occasionally see Crooks talking to himself with his hands moving, which he expressed as uncommon and had become more prevalent after he had finished his last semester. »
Radcliffe noticed similar changes when he bumped into Crooks on campus.
« He would always move his legs around a lot, and he would kind of talk pretty fast, » Radcliffe recalled.
Crooks graduated from community college in May 2024. On June 14, less than a month before the assassination attempt, he sent one last email from his community college account.
It was to the registrar. Crooks wanted to know when heâd receive his diploma.
