Northeast
FBI interviews classmate of Trump shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks over dislike for politicians
EXCLUSIVE: BETHEL PARK, Penn. – The FBI has reached out to a former classmate of would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks after he publicly revealed that the killer had confronted him years ago over his support for former President Donald Trump and expressed a “smug” dislike for politicians, he says.
“They called me…honestly just asked me for names and if I could give [them] much else,” 20-year-old Vincent Taormina told Fox News Digital.
Agents asked questions about the Trump rally gunman’s social circle and his purported dislike for candidates like Trump, Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, he said.
But he also referred to himself as a “dead end” for the bureau. He said he hadn’t talked to the gunman in years.
FORMER CLASSMATE RECALLS TRUMP SHOOTER GRILLING HIM OVER SUPPORT FOR FORMER POTUS: ‘DID NOT LIKE POLITICIANS’
Thomas Matthew Crooks is alleged to be the shooter in the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, July 13, 2024. This photo is believed to have been captured on the day of the shooting. (Obtained by Fox News Digital)
He didn’t hear much from Crooks after a school shooting threat that he believes originated from the killer’s group of close friends.
“They were definitely the type, and they did, make threats to shoot up our school,” he said.
TRUMP SHOOTER’S FORMER AMERICAN POLITICS CLASSMATE ON CONVERSATIONS WITH WOULD-BE ASSASSIN THOMAS CROOKS
Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump is surrounded by U.S. Secret Service agents at a campaign rally, Saturday, July 13, 2024, in Butler, Pa. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
However, Taormina told Fox News Digital that while rumors swirled, there wasn’t any concrete evidence regarding who specifically in the group made the threat.
He had suspicions though. Crooks vanished from school for several days afterward, he said.
WATCH: Classmate recalls Trump shooter grilling him over support for former president: ‘He called me stupid’
Jason Kohler, who told reporters earlier this week that Crooks had been relentlessly bullied in school, said the same.
“No, never heard that,” he said when asked about Crooks’ being behind the threat.
Another classmate, Sarah D’Angelo, separately told Fox News Digital that she didn’t think he would have been involved in the threat – it happened at the high school when they were all in middle school.
THOMAS MATTHEW CROOKS HID RIFLE IN ADVANCE OF TRUMP RALLY SNIPER ATTACK, SECRET SERVICE SOURCE SAYS
WATCH: Former classmate of Trump’s would-be assassin says Thomas Matthew Crooks’ had ‘no outward political views’
But the former high school math whiz became a killer on Saturday, July 13. Crooks climbed onto a building during Trump’s campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, and opened fire with a semiautomatic rifle, authorities said.
He killed a 50-year-old father of two named Corey Comperatore, critically wounded David Dutch, 57, and James Copenhaver, 74, according to authorities. He struck the former president in his right ear.
Secret Service counter-snipers “neutralized” Crooks at the scene, authorities said. Images show him lying dead on a rooftop less than 150 yards from where Trump had been speaking.
Blurry cellphone video shows a rallygoer’s perspective of Thomas Matthew Crooks crawling on a roof moments before he attempted to assassinate former President Donald Trump. (DJ Laughery)
FORMER SECRET SERVICE AGENT WARNS AGENCY ‘STRETCHED THIN’ WITH NEW RESPONSIBILITIES, LACK OF MANPOWER
Taormina said he believes someone in Crooks’ friend group must have known something about whatever triggered him to commit the violent attack.
“Everybody, anybody who knew him-knew him, should have seen something,” he said. “They should have known something was up, and I know it’s kind of easy to hide, but people are going to get their affairs in order before they do something that’s bold and this drastic, and nobody saw it? And why?”
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A federal investigation into his motives and potential help is continuing, with the FBI analyzing his laptop, cellphone and rifle as well as interviewing dozens of witnesses.
Anyone with information on the case is asked to submit tips at http://tips.fbi.gov or 1-800-CALL-FBI.
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Northeast
Critics say Mamdani’s vow to swap ‘rugged individualism’ with ‘warmth of collectivism’ has sinister undertone
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
Freshly inaugurated New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a self-described Democratic socialist, promoted “collectivism” over “rugged individualism” during a speech on Thursday, and prominent conservative figures nationwide responded by sounding the alarm about collectivist ideology.
“We will replace the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism,” Mamdani declared in his inaugural address.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — a Republican who pursued the GOP presidential nomination during the past election cycle but ultimately dropped out and endorsed President Donald Trump — raised the matter of the massive death toll associated with collectivism.
HOURS AFTER TAKING OFFICE, NYC MAYOR MAMDANI TARGETS LANDLORDS, MOVES TO INTERVENE IN PRIVATE BANKRUPTCY CASE
Mayor Zohran Mamdani addresses the crowd at the 2026 New York City Inauguration outside of City Hall in New York City on Jan. 1, 2026. (Jason Alpert-Wisnia / Hans Lucas / AFP via Getty Images)
“The ‘warmth’ of collectivism that always requires coercion and force. How many dead over the past 100 years due to collectivist ideologies?” DeSantis wrote in a post on X.
House Republican Conference Chair Rep. Lisa McClain of Michigan called Mamdani a “communist,” a label which he has previously rejected.
DESANTIS WARNS GOP FACES ‘ISSUE’ KEEPING TRUMP VOTERS ENGAGED IN FUTURE ELECTIONS
Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks to reporters during a press conference as he stands on the airplane runway of Alligator Alcatraz in Ochopee, Fla., on Friday, July 25, 2025. (Al Diaz/Miami Herald/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
“Zohran Mamdani is a dangerous communist who is likely to DESTROY NYC through his dedication to communist ideology. Let’s be clear: COMMUNISM HAS FAILED everywhere it has been tried. NYC will be no different,” she asserted in a post on X.
Mamdani said last year during an appearance on “The View” that he is “not a Communist.”
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, responded to Mamdani’s controversial remark on Thursday by asserting, “When communists rule, individual rights — invariably — are taken away.”
NYC MAYORAL CANDIDATE ZOHRAN MAMDANI DENIES TRUMP’S ‘COMMUNIST’ LABEL ON ‘THE VIEW’
“Collectivism isn’t warm,” Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, declared in a post.
“It’s as cold as ice and locks the poor into perpetual poverty,” he continued. “Free markets have elevated more people out of poverty than any government program ever could.”
Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, who is running for Lone Star State attorney general, asserted in a post, “The Marxist and the Islamist are the enemy. The Mayor of New York is both.”
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A new mayor, a fresh start — you know the drill. There are as many ideas out there for how Zohran Mamdani can now improve New York’s urban environment as there are New Yorkers.
I canvassed a few dozen planners, architects, academics, community leaders, neighborhood organizers, developers, housing and transit experts and former city government officials. I gave them no budgets or time lines. They gave me a mayoral to-do list of ideas big, small, familiar, deep in the weeds, fanciful and timely.
What follows is a small selection, with some kibitzing by me. You can vote “love it” or “skip it” below and help determine the ranking of priorities. Feel free to leave eye rolls and alternative proposals in the comments section.
Check back in the coming days to see how the ranking has changed and we will let you know the ultimate results on Jan. 13.
1
Create many thousands more affordable housing units by converting some of the city’s public golf courses into mixed income developments, with garden allotments and wetlands.
2
Deck over Robert Moses’s Cross Bronx Expressway and create a spectacular new park.
3
Devise a network of dedicated lanes for e-bikes and electric scooters so they will endanger fewer bicyclists and pedestrians.
4
Pedestrianize Lower Manhattan. Not even 10 percent of people there arrive by car.
5
Build more mental health crisis centers citywide.
6
Provide more clean, safe public pay toilets that don’t cost taxpayers $1 million apiece.
7
Convert more coastline into spongy marshes, akin to what exists at Hunter’s Point South Park in Queens, to mitigate rising seas and floods.
8
Dedicate more of the city budget to public libraries and parks, the lifeblood of many neighborhoods, crucial to public health and climate resilience. The city devotes barely 2 percent of its funds to them now.
9
Follow through on the Adams administration’s $400 million makeover of once-glamorous Fifth Avenue from Central Park South to Bryant Park, with wider sidewalks, reduced lanes of traffic, and more trees, restaurants, bikes and pedestrian-friendly stretches.
10
Do away with free street parking and enforce parking placard rules. New York’s curbside real estate is priceless public land, and only a small fraction of residents own cars.
11
Open the soaring vaults under the Brooklyn Bridge to create shops, restaurants, a farmers’ market and public library in nascent Gotham Park.
13
Persuade Google, JPMorgan or some other city-vested megacorporation to help improve the acoustics as well as Wi-Fi in subways, along the lines of Citibank sponsoring Citi Bikes.
14
Overhaul freight deliveries to get more 18-wheelers off city streets, free up traffic, reduce noise, improve public safety and streamline supply chains.
15
Rein in City Hall bureaucracy around new construction. The city’s Department of Design and Construction is full of good people but a longtime hot mess at completing public projects.
16
Convert more streets and intersections into public plazas and pocket parks. Like the pedestrianization of parts of Broadway, this Bloomberg-era initiative has proved to be good for businesses and neighborhoods.
17
Stop playing Russian roulette with a crumbling highway and repair the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway before it collapses.
The good news for Marco Sturm and the Bruins is that the team could get defenseman Henri Jokiharju back in action Tuesday night in Seattle.
But the potential return of Jokiharju, who has been out of Boston’s lineup since sustaining an injury back on Nov. 28, does not give Sturm a healthy blue line. Instead, the Bruins are apparently dealing with yet another injury ahead of Jokiharju’s return to action, this time with Hampus Lindholm back on the shelf with an injury.
And one that certainly sounds concerning based on what Sturm said.
“It’s not going to be a day-to-day thing,” Sturm, whose team is on a three-game point streak, said following Monday’s practice when asked about Lindholm’s injury status. “Hopefully it’s not too long, but he’s definitely going to be out for a little bit. We’ll have to do more testing when we’re back in Boston so we can go from there.”
Sturm added that Lindholm has “been hurt,” though it’s unclear if he meant that Lindholm has been hurt in the last contest if he’s been playing hurt for the last little bit here. Lindholm did finish Saturday’s game without issue (at least one that was visible), and finished with an assist and logged a pair of overtime shifts in a 22:47 night.
Lindholm is also less than a week removed from what was one of his best games of the season, with a goal and an assist in Boston’s 6-2 win over the Oilers last Wednesday.
Lindholm has not traveled back to Boston ahead of schedule, though that admittedly means very little with just one more game on deck for the B’s on this road trip.
“We just had our first appointment [Sunday] and we’re going to wait until we get back because there’s nothing we can do right now,” Sturm said when discussing Lindholm’s injury. “And then we’ll let our doctors decide our next steps.”
Lindholm, who has three goals and 14 points through 34 games this year, has already missed eight games due to a lower-body injury earlier this season.
Sturm noted that Jokiharju looked “pretty good,” which is a positive development when it comes to his potential availability for Tuesday against the Kraken. If Jokiharju is unable to go, Vladislav Kolyachonok would slide back into the Boston lineup.
The Bruins come into Tuesday’s head-to-head with the Kraken with five of a possible eight points on this road trip banked away, but are a woeful 2-6-0 with Lindholm on the shelf this season.
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