Kippah-wearing man misidentified as Trump shooter online

"For the record, Thomas Matthew Crooks wearing a quipa," says a July 18, 2024 post on Threads, which has since been made private.

The picture shows the side profile of a blond man wearing glasses and a kippah, a brimless cap traditionally donned by Jewish men.

Image

Screenshot from Threads taken July 24, 2024

Similar posts spread across platforms such as X, Facebook and Instagram in the days after a gunman opened fire at Trump's campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, wounding the Republican presidential nominee, killing one spectator and injuring two others. 

Authorities have identified 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania as the gunman and said no evidence indicates he had accomplices or co-conspirators (archived here and here).

Investigators have yet to establish a motive, FBI Director Christopher Wray said July 24 in testimony before Congress.

Image

A driver's license photograph of Thomas Matthew Crooks, the suspected shooter of former US president Donald Trump (AFP / HANDOUT)

But the man pictured wearing a kippah is not Crooks.

Reverse image searches revealed Congregation B'nai Abraham, a synagogue in Butler, posted the original photo to its website and Facebook page in February along with another picture of the same person. The synagogue has since made both pages private.

Image

Screenshot from Facebook taken July 14, 2024, with elements outlined by AFP

Using the facial recognition tool PimEyes, reverse image searches and other digital investigation techniques, AFP located additional photos of the same individual. AFP is not disclosing his name out of respect for his safety and privacy.

The man said in a July 26 email that he was aware of the situation and had reported it to authorities.

A representative for Congregation B'nai Abraham, who requested anonymity due to security concerns, confirmed the man's identity in a July 26, 2024 text message.

"That is not Thomas Matthew Crooks," the representative said.

In a statement shared with AFP, the synagogue's board of directors added that Crooks, who was killed by Secret Service snipers at the Trump rally, had "never been a member of Congregation B'nai Abraham, nor has he ever attended any event or service at our synagogue."

The board said the person in the photo "is known to us and is not Thomas Crooks."

Reuben Moreton, a facial identification and digital forensics expert who previously worked as a forensic examiner in the United Kingdom (archived here), compared the image of the man in the kippah to a shot of Crooks captured from a similar side angle (archived here).

Moreton told AFP in a July 26 email that, after evaluating the images using best practices for forensic face examination, he identified "multiple dissimilarities in facial feature detail."

Those include differences in their noses, chins and ears, as well as a mark on the neck of the man in the kippah that Crooks did not have.

"In my opinion, the findings provide strong support for the proposition that the individual depicted in the synagogue image and Thomas Matthew Crooks are different people," Moreton said.

AFP has previously debunked several other posts misidentifying the shooter, including here, here, here, here, here and here.