There were more than 18,000 known murders in the U.S. in 2023. Despite the magnitude of the carnage, we can take comfort in the more than twelve percent decline in the murder rate in the U.S. over the past year. Even with this substantial decline, we are still intentionally killing each other at a formidable pace. Law enforcement officials, economists, politicians, and various other professionals dealing with these statistics provide differing explanations for this bloodshed, but the unavoidable conclusion is that we Americans are a violent bunch. We hold sacred our right to keep and use deadly devices, such as semi-automatic firearms, and we increasingly vilify those in our communities who do not share our opinions, religious views, ethnic origins, or political affiliations.
In America, we identify a special category of murder that we call assassination. Assassination differs from routine murder in terms of the target, rather than the methods or results. The lethal event warrants this descriptor if the victim killed is a prominent citizen or holds a prominent position in society. Murder of a president, presidential candidate, Congress member, or judge is an ‘assassination,’ rather than a simple murder because the targets of the attacks are as much the office and the integrity of the system surrounding that office as it is the individuals themselves.
Despite the normalization of violence in America, we are still occasionally surprised to see that even the most well-guarded of our citizens are potential victims. We were reminded of this with the recent attempt on Donald Trump’s life. If the bullet fired at him from 400 feet away had passed two inches to the right of the path it took, we would be discussing the assassination of the former president, rather than the attempt on his life. As with most political assassination attempts, we should expect little clarity regarding the motives of the perpetrator or the injuries to the person targeted.
Little has been established regarding the shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks. He was a 20-year-old, white man, who graduated from a public high school and received an associate’s degree from a local junior college. He was registered as a member of the Republican party but had not exhibited any substantial interest in or commitment to political activities. He lived with his parents in Bethel Park, PA, a small farming community in eastern Pennsylvania. He was working as a dietary aide at a local nursing home. His father had more than 12 firearms at home, and Thomas routinely practiced shooting an AR 15 type semi automatic rifle at a local firing range. He had no criminal or psychiatric history and left no explanation for his attempt to kill Mr. Trump.
With regard to the intended target, virtually no details have been released concerning the medical examination and treatment he received after the shooting. Photos taken at the time of the incident revealed blood about his right ear and on the right side of his face. At the Republican National Convention, his right ear was covered with a bandage. Customarily a gunshot wound at the apparent site of impact would be investigated with a computerized tomographic (CT) scan of the head. Although Mr. Trump had no apparent loss of consciousness or evidence of focal weakness after being shot, the proximity of the bullet to his skull would produce a shock wave extending inside his skull that could produce a contusion (brain bruise) or subarachnoid hemorrhage (bleeding into the fluid around the brain).
Currently, there is no information suggesting there was more than one shooter. There is no evidence that the shooter was hired or enlisted for the assassination or that he was contacted by any foreign agents or domestic terror groups. None of his friends or family members have described actions or remarks prior to the shooting that suggested his homicidal intentions.
The entire affair is beyond puzzling. This will, of course, give rise to innumerable conspiracy theories and finger pointing. The head of the Secret Service has resigned after being blamed for the security lapse, even though she had no direct oversight of the venue. The Secret Service agents at the site will be blamed for allowing Mr. Trump to step up to the speaker’s podium even though an individual, Thomas Crooks, was behaving suspiciously just outside the security perimeter controlled by the Secret Service. They also will be cited for not securing the rooftop from which Crooks shot at Mr. Trump.
The local police will be blamed for not monitoring the activities of people outside the secure perimeter. Congressional hearings concerning this security failure will go on for months. After all the witnesses have been called, and all the Congressmen and Congresswomen have had a chance to produce sound bites immortalizing their outrage, more money will be allocated to the Secret Service to hire more agents to protect the ever-expanding cadre of government officials and potential government officials who may be targets for assassins.
What may never be answered is what Thomas Crooks was thinking or hoping to achieve when he climbed onto that roof and fired his rifle at Donald Trump. Perhaps he imagined himself to be a modern-day John Wilkes Booth, resorting to violence to achieve a political goal. Perhaps he hoped to escape and achieve notoriety as an object of hate for millions of frustrated voters. Perhaps he was just an unremarkable young man who wanted to be “distinguished amongst those who cannot distinguish.” The possibilities are limitless, but one fact is undeniable: many who want to effect change through violence have come before him and many will come after him.
Dr. Lechtenberg is an Easton resident who graduated from Tufts University and Tufts Medical School in Massachusetts and subsequently trained at The Mount Sinai Hospital and Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in Manhattan. He worked as a neurologist at several New York Hospitals, including Kings County and The Long Island College Hospital, while maintaining a private practice, teaching at SUNY Downstate Medical School, and publishing 15 books on a variety of medical topics. He worked in drug development in the U.S., as well as in England, Germany, and France.
