2020 video of man shouting anti-Republican threats misidentified as suspect in Trump rally shooting

Context

On July 13, former U.S. President Donald Trump was shot while onstage at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania. The FBI termed the shooting an attempted assassination and soon identified the gunman as 20-year-old local Thomas Matthew Crooks, who was killed at the scene by the Secret Service.

Around the time the FBI released Crooks' name, a video showing a man shouting “Slash Republican throats” and “death to fascists” circulated on X (formerly Twitter). Multiple social media users linked the video to the shooter at the Pennsylvania rally and shared the video with captions like, "'Slash Republican throats. Death to Fascists' Unhinged shouting from the alleged suspect from yesterday’s attempt on DJT’s life. Surely this guy had made it onto a list to be investigated.”

Another X user commented on the video, “For anyone declaring Thomas was a Republican, this video shows is shouting, 'sl@sh republicans throats' repeatedly. Definitely a mentally disturbed Liberal. They always are.” An X post with the same video captioned, “Thomas Matthew Crooks seemed stable,” has over eight million views. 

However, Logically Facts found that the video was captured in 2020 and does not show the suspected shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks.

In fact

A reverse image search of some of the keyframes in the footage led us to an article by the Daily Mail, published on February 6, 2020, with the headline, “Shocking moment Arizona State University student yells 'Slash Republican throats' after Trump was acquitted in impeachment trial.” The Daily Mail article includes matching video to the viral footage.

Left: The viral footage. Right: Image from a Daily Mail article published on February 6, 2020, with matching visuals to the viral footage. (Source: X/Daily Mail/Screenshot/Modified by Logically Facts)

According to the Daily Mail article, the incident took place at Arizona State University in front of a table of students promoting Trump. The man shouted, “Slash Republican throats! Slash fascist throats!” and made a slashing gesture across his neck before walking away. The video was originally posted on X by the “Students for Trump at ASU” account, the university’s group for Trump supporters.

After the video initially went viral on social media, the Arizona State University Police Department stated they were investigating the video. However, while the culprit has not been publicly identified, the evidence does not support the claim he was the suspected shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks.

At the time of Saturday's shooting, Crooks was 20 years old. In 2020, he would have been a high school student. On July 14, the Bethel Park School District confirmed that the suspected shooter graduated from Bethel Park High School with the Class of 2022. 

A screenshot of the statement by Bethel Park School District affirming that Crooks graduated from high school in Pennsylvania in 2022. (Source: Bethel Park School District website)

Bethel Park High School is located in Pennsylvania, not Arizona. The distance between the two states is over 2,000 miles.

According to reports, records show Crooks was a registered Republican. A school official told The New York Times he graduated from the Community College of Allegheny County with an associate degree in engineering science. Crooks attended this college in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, not Arizona State University. 

The verdict

The footage is unrelated and does not show the suspected Trump rally shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks. The video was captured in 2020 at Arizona State University when Crooks was a high school student in Pennsylvania. Therefore, we have marked the claim as false.