What is the truth of the picture and video being circulated as showing the shooter of Trump?
Circulated on social media and news websites is a picture and video showing a young man with long brown hair, wearing glasses and blue clothes, with the claim that he is the attacker on former U.S. President and current candidate (Donald Trump).
The Truth
The attached claim is misleading, as the person appearing in the attached picture and the video in which he said: "I hate Republicans, I hate Trump," is not the attacker on Trump but another person with similar features who falsely claimed so.
He initially published his picture on his account on the X platform, which was named (jewgazing) before it was changed to (poopy_tool_fan), with an English claim translated to Arabic: "Urgent: The shooter on Trump has been identified."
Then a video he recorded was circulated, in which he claimed:
"My name is Thomas Matthew Crooks, I hate Republicans, I hate Trump."
He then falsely claimed:
"Guess what? You arrested the wrong man."
Meanwhile, the (law enforcement unit) that was securing Trump immediately killed the real attacker, who was actually named (Thomas Matthew Crooks), after he shot Trump.
Upon completing the verification of the claims of the young man claiming to be the attacker, we found in the archive of his account on X that he posted:
"About to record a video that will blow up this site if they still think it's me."
In another post, he expressed his astonishment at how quickly his picture spread on social media and mentioned:
"Man, I'm shaking at the first result."
After his pictures spread widely, the attack claimant retracted his claims, posting several times to clarify that he is not the accused person (Thomas Matthew Crooks). In one of them, he stated:
"I am not Thomas, I am not the shooter, I am not anyone, making that perfectly clear."
He also mentioned in another post before deleting his posts from his account:
"I need to delete all my personal pictures as soon as possible."
Regarding the identity and picture of the actual attacker on Trump, the FBI announced that (Thomas Matthew Crooks) did not carry an ID, so investigators used DNA and facial recognition technology to identify him.
The American news site TMZ published old pictures of him and a video documenting the moment of his killing after he fired shots, also circulated a picture showing his face covered in blood, clearly indicating that he is different from the young man with false claims, despite some similarities in hair and features.
Trump had been shot in his right ear while delivering a speech at an election rally in Pennsylvania before security personnel intervened to protect him and transfer him to the hospital.