The FBI has determined 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks as a suspect in the failed assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania yesterday. Following the incident, a rush was made to identify any online accounts that were linked to the suspected shooter and could explain his motives. Discord now says My city that an account was found on the gaming chat platform that was apparently c onnected to Crooks, but that he had hardly used it.
“We have identified an account that appears to be associated with the suspect; it has been used infrequently and we have found no evidence that it was used to plan this incident or discuss his political views,” a company spokesperson wrote in an emailed statement. “Discord strongly condemns violence of any kind, including political violence, and we will continue to work closely with law enforcement.”
Primarily used for gaming communities and chatting while playing online, Discord is different from public social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook. Unlike these, Discord is a server-based messaging system where users gather in isolated communities that are not easily searched or shared outside of the active members of a single server, especially if people are using a private server to communicate.
This was the case with the gunman behind the mass shooting in Buffalo in 2022 that left 10 people dead. The attack was planned on a private Discord server for months before it was implemented
While Discord presented itself as a mainstream communications tool for broader applications during the pandemic, it has since focused on its roots as a gamer-centric platform. “We believe Discord can play a uniquely important role in the future of gaming,” said CEO Jason Citron. wrote in a blog post earlier this year. “We’ll focus on making it easier and more fun for people to talk and hang out before, during and after playing – and we’ll help the developers of these games bring their creativity to life.”
In the July 13 shooting at Trump’s campaign rally in Butler, PA, the 2024 Republican presidential candidate was wounded in the right ear and both an attendee in the stands and the suspected shooter died. Two other attendees were injured and remain in critical condition at Alleghany General Hospital.
The Intercept reported that Crooks made a $15 donation to the liberal PAC ActBlue on President Biden’s inauguration day in 2021, but voter status records showed he registered as a Republican after he turned 18 later that year. During the shooting, he also appeared to be wearing a T-shirt from YouTube channel DemolitionRanch, which is a gun enthusiast. “Last night was crazy…” said the channel’s author, Matt Carriker, tweeted today“News stations are calling me and asking if I ever talked to the shooter… what… the… hell.”
