Thomas Matthew Crooks

[Jim Eshelman]

The shooter has been identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks, born September 20, 2003 in Bethel Park, PA. (No time available, of course.) He was shot and killed just after shooting Trump and the crowd in general. (The shooting was July 13, 2024, 6:11 PM EDT, Butler, PA.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Matthew_Crooks

He was an above-average student in high school (he won a cash award in math and science), described as quiet and (per one report) "often bullied." He worked in a local nursing home kitchen. He was a registered Republican since he turned 18 in 2021, though eight months earlier (the day Biden was inaugurated) he had donated to the Progressive Turnout Project to turn out liberal vote. People on both political extremes likely will claim he was aligned with the other, therefore. My best information is that he made this donation when clicking a link to view the inauguration ceremonies, and later unsubscribed from the list. (To me, he sounds like a centrist Republican, but you have all the information I have on that.)


Crooks was a Virgo-Gemini, broadly matching the description of him in school. His one outstanding aspect is a partile Mars-Uranus conjunction at 6° Aquarius, which surely was made strongly active for the shooting (which is a swarm of Mars-Uranus combinations in space, in Trump's chart, and in the mundane charts). If born early in the day, he also would have had a Moon-Saturn conjunction. (I don't know anything about his upbringing or home and parent situation.)

Besides the Mars-Uranus conjunction in space duplicating his natal Mars-Uranus, there were no transits of note. (If he were born around dinner time, his Moon would have been triggered by the other main aspect at the time of the shooting, an exact Moon-Sun square at the Mars/Saturn midpoint.)

His chart had natural antipathies to Trump's chart, specifically with his Mars-Uranus conjunction opposite Trump's Mars moderately and exactly opposite Trump's Ascendant. Literally, Crooks was the Mars-Uranus figure drawn into Trump's life by the transiting Mars-Uranus conjunction on his Midheaven. To get this clearly (using noon positions for Crooks), here was Trump's chart at the moment of the shooting:

0°05' Tau - transiting Mars
0°23' Tau - Trump MC
1°05' Tau - transiting Uranus
2°07' Leo - Trump Mars
5°01' Aqu - Crook Uranus
5°38' Aqu - Crook Mars
5°59' Leo - Trump Asc

[Jim Eshelman]

Just to play with this a bit... Crooks' last SLR occurred July 6. I think the odds are excellent that his natal Mars-Uranus conjunction was on an angle. He had no other important transits to his natal in the SLR and no other obvious ecliptical aspects.

His SLR (for Butler, PA) would have had natal Uranus (using 5°01' Aquarius) on angles ecliptically if the SLR fell at the following SLR times (Uranus' latitude was small so these are nearly identical with mundane crossings):

11:10 PM (5th) - Asc
2:58 AM - Z
4:29 AM - MC
9:48 AM - Dsc
10:11 AM - WP
4:27 PM - IC
5:24 PM - N
10:09 PM - EP

Looking at these eight charts, some also have transiting Mars-Uranus (or one of them) on angles. We can narrow the list: For various reasons, I think the following four are the most likely SLR times (approximately):

4:31 PM (5th) - IC
10:13 PM (5th) - EP
2:58 AM - Z
9:48 AM - Dsc

These give the following possible Moon positions, which in turn give the appended speculative birth times:

r Mars-Uranus on IC - 17°59' Gem --> 1:12 AM
r Mars-Uranus on EP - 21°05' Gem --> 7:13 AM
r Mars-Uranus on Z - 23°40' Gem --> 12:11 PM
r Mars-Uranus on Dsc - 27°21' Gem --> 7:14 PM

First, is there anything to learn from re-scanning the transits to these four possible charts' angles and Moon?

1:13 AM. It's tempting to anticipate a difficult early home life based on stereotypes, but we don't know this is really the case. This chart does have a precise natal Moon-Saturn conjunction close to Asc, plus transiting Neptune near MC for the shooting.

7:14 AM. Neptune transit to horizon but not exactly there (time would have to be 5-8 minutes earlier). The chart seems a little too social and likely to be a public, even leading, stand-out, which is not how he ws described in school. Probably not right.

12:11 PM. Nothing close enough to matter, though the natal itself looks good with natal Mars-Uranus on Nadir and Pluto on EP-a. (Mercury on MC is fitting but redundant, given the luminary signs.)

7:14 PM. t Neptune in the vicinity of natal Asc, but not that close. The natal also shows him likely a far more social person than described. Sun-Moon for event are exactly aspecting natal Moon.

Though there are a couple I'm disinclined toward, I'll keep them all in the running for now. Scanning all solar arcs, secondary progressions, and transits to each:

1:13 AM. Nothing of note.

7:14 AM. Nothing of note.

12:11 PM. Progressed/directed Sun is within a degree of square his Moon. (This looked like the best natal and had a solid SLR.) Directed Asc conjunct natal Pluto! Transiting Uranus on natal Descendant!

7:14 PM. Solar arcs: angles reach his Moon; Mercury reaches natal angles. The ONLY thing going for this time is that it has one of the two main aspects of the moment exactly on natal Moon (and several things weigh against it).


I'm ready to settle on a likely (speculative) birth time of around 12:11 PM.

[Jim Eshelman]

I'm ready to settle on a likely (speculative) birth time of around 12:11 PM.

SNQ for this birth time is not topo bad. It at least "highlights" him. SNQ Ascendant 25°34' Virgo hits the transiting Sun-Moon square, especially if Asc were 1° later. Of great note - I'd missed this! - transiting Pluto squares progressed Moon 0°02'.

SQ is less impressive since it starts with solar Venus on MC, though also with solar Uranus on WP-a.

PSSR put natal Sturn on Descendant. It would be even closer if the angle were up to a degree later.

I'm going to go with these two "nudge it a degree" indications and bump the time a little (make it a less pretentious quarter hour spectification).

Crooks.png

[Veronica]

Have you learned anything more about his home situation?
This news has been very unsettling and I'm seeing lots of distractions.
I would like to know the parents birthdata to better understand the home environment and synastry relationships. This young man used his fathers assault rifle, and as we have seen, parents are being held responsible for the heinous acts their children commit. The Trump family has a legal right I think to prosecute the parents. It would not surprise me to learn that the pattern of being bullied this man was said to have did not start at school. People being bullied often do lash out seemingly unpredictably.

[Jim Eshelman]

I've not learned much. For example, while we might want to jump to the conclusion he came from a troubled home, I've seen no indication that's true; and his demeanor and reports of his behavior suggest the opposite.

The family lives in a somewhat affluent suburb. One parent is a Democrat, the other a Libertarian. They're both professionals in counseling fields. Thomas registered as a Republican, has an engineering degree, seems bright and socially mindful, politically interested, but not politically engaged.

It seems like a typical upper middle class, politically mixed and perhaps overall centrist Pennsylvania family.

BTW, the father has dozens guns. (I think I saw 40, but might be remembering wrong.) The boy knew how to shoot, used a practice range - again, nothing strange for the demo and area.