“People saw him on the roof for 90 minutes before the shooting and did nothing.”
He climbed onto the roof about six minutes before the first shot and people started yelling about it right away. He lasted another 14 seconds after that.
“The FBI destroyed his body in record time to hide evidence, and the autopsy was done in secret with no witnesses.”
The autopsy was performed the day after the shooting, and FBI agents Jill Wolfe and Brian Johnson were present. Autopsies usually last two to four hours and the body is released to the next of kin within two or three days. The fact that his body was held for ten days indicates a high degree of thoroughness collecting additional evidence. At this point the FBI released the remains to the coroner, and the coroner in turn gave permission to release the remains to the family. The family chose cremation, not the FBI or the coroner.
“Witnesses said he was tweeking, pulling at his hair and obviously on drugs.”
Autopsy found no traces of drugs or alcohol in his system. If this did actually happen – and there is only one unverified source – it could have been a manifestation of agitation or nerves, but it is impossible to say.
“Bombs were found all over his house.”
Two homemade bombs were found in the trunk of his car and and one was found at the foot of his bed. All three were inactive and could not have been remotely triggered.
“He brought a van (or bicycle) to Butler.”
He only drove his own car, a Hyundai Elantra, to the event. A bicycle was temporarily impounded but the owner was located quickly and it was released. A van was also impounded for evidence but nothing seems to have come of it and it doesn’t figure significantly in any of the task reports. It’s unlikely he drove up the van and then walked the fifty miles back home to pick up his car.
“He was a Furry/He drew violent art.”
DeviantArt is an art community where users create and sometimes sell their art. While DeviantArt has a strong Furry presence, it’s not a requirement. None of the results with his account seem to be connected to the Furry community. Additionally, there are two accounts with the username Epic Microwave, and the one with the violent art made a post about Kurt Cobain’s gun around July 17th 2024, days after Crooks was dead. The account has now been deactivated.
“He was recruited online by a Nordic Antifa member.”
Crooks had a short argument in the comments of a youtube video four years before the events in Butler, and there is no evidence the conversation went on any longer than that, or that it was any more significant that any of the dozens of arguments people have with strangers on the internet every day. The person in question was found in 2026, and turned out to be a White Supremacist Neo-Nazi named Bjorn Leif Hjelmerud. “The Jews have banned me from all their social media platforms, so I am effectively censored,” Hjelmerud allegedly told The Daily Mail. “But it does not matter as the world has collectively noticed what I have been pointing out. Have a nice day and death to Israel!” Raise your hand if you’d argue with him, too.
“He was bullied.”
This is contested by his school, his classmate, and his teacher.
“He was called School Shooter and was sent home for making threats.”
Several people seem to be conflating him with Xavier Cisneros, who had this issue at Bethel Park High School in 2019.
“Why are you doing this?”
Because of this:
Nice things said about Crooks by people who knew him personally
“Just like any normal person would, he was always nice to the people around him, some people kind of just don’t fit in as much as others, that’s just how the cliques go in high school. Maybe other people in the school that I thought probably would be more capable of such a thing, he’s definitely not one of them. Normal quiet person. Nice with everyone he interacts with, never said anything harshly political like that.
“I told his parents, You’ve got a top ten son here. I can’t even give you anything negative. Absolutely nothing. When I say, talk about the perfect student. I used to tell the other teachers if I had at least 25 or more of him, the world would be a better place. My classroom would be a better place because this was a student I never had to go back and reprimand or check his work. If I say we had to read chapter 1 and answer the questions at the back of the chapter, before the class was over Tom would have his work done. In tests, always had one of the best scores. – Xavier H., Computer Science teacher
Bad things said about Crooks by people who knew him personally
“I brought up the fact that I’m Hispanic and I’m for Trump and he said ‘Well you’re Hispanic so shouldn’t you hate Trump?’ And I was like no he’s great, like, he’s a great president, and he called me stupid or, you know, insinuated that I was stupid, you know, like ‘Well that’s kind of stupid.’ Like, he was a know it all.” –Vincent Taormina, Classmate
And that’s it. That’s the worst I could find.