At first, the news reported that the gunman had no id on his body; then within a few hours the FBI announced his name.
How did they know? Has any news source mentioned this?
My blind guess is that his rifle gave him away. If the gun was legally registered , it would have been easy to trace the owner.
But I have seen zero news reporting about this.
Also, there has been nothing about his family or friends. In this age of social media, there have been no shots of a crying mother saying he was a good boy, no videos of high school friends, etc.
The lack of sensationalism is a good thing.
But in today’s media world, it seems strange to me.
Is there some kind of official gag order?
Or just journalists being a little slow , despite the easy opportunity to boost their ratings?
Apparently Thomas Crooks did not spend much time on social media. I know that sounds remarkable for a 20 year old in this day and age, but not everyone is heavily involved with social media. That alone reduces how much material the media has to report on.
As to how he was identified - possibly fingerprints, distinctive tattoos, who knows? We all seem to be on camera these days, we leave traces everywhere we go. Maybe he left he ID at home but kept his phone on him. I’m sure we’ll know eventually.
Sorry, a too-fast reading of your prior note led me to believe it had already been moved, but request to pay attention to the category in the future is noted.
That’s what I heard too. They found who bought the rifle. Found that he had a son the right age. Did a preliminary ID off of pictures then confirmed with DNA. He had no record so no fingerprints on file.
Same. My kids are early-mid twenties and have a very small social media footprint.
Yeah, I would have suspected the gun would be the give away, unless the shooter thought to somehow modify it in some way to remove identifiable markings.
I doubt there was DNA testing involved, just given the time frame involved.
Shooting happened approx 6:30 pm on a Sat evening in rural NW PA & they had a bomb squad at his house by 1am. Just getting a sample & getting it to a lab (probably in DC) would have taken some time, at hour or two at minimum as they probably don’t have a plane sitting there to courier it ASAP. Even if there was a tech there to process it as soon as it came in; how long does a test take? I don’t believe he has a record so no crimes where he’d have a DNA sample on file. Unless he had done a 23 & me or something similar his DNA wouldn’t be on file anywhere. Even if a cousin or other relative had, it would take some additional time to work thru to find he was the right person.
That’s a stretch for even the TV crime shows that have instant access to every security cam ever, including some random hunter’s trail cam that doesn’t even have internet connectivity & DNA &/or spectrum analyzer that can confirm the gasoline used to set the arson came from the specific pump where the bad guy was seen all in under 5 mins to make an arrest when they come back from the the next commercial break.
My recollection is that it’s difficult to effectively remove the serial number from a gun. It’s stamped into the metal, which deforms the underlying grain structure; I saw a demo once which showed that even if you file off the visible numbers, that deformation can still be rendered readable again by magnetic or chemical means.
They didn’t need the DNA match to go to his father’s house, because that’s what the gun got them. Presumably once they got to his father’s house, they took a sample from the father, and the DNA test told them “parent, sibling, or child DNA match”, which, combined with the age of the shooter, they narrowed down to “son”.
Are long guns registered in PA? I would be surprised. There was probably a purchase record, but that’s probably it. In this case, it was enough, since it wasn’t transferred after purchase.