A Texas social media influencer with a popular YouTube channel about guns said he was shocked to see his brand’s logo worn by the would-be Trump assassin during Saturday’s shooting in Pennsylvania.
Photos and video footage taken of the shooter, identified by the FBI as Thomas Matthew Crooks, revealed that he was wearing a Demolition Ranch shirt during the time of the assassination attempt, which was confirmed by the channel’s operator, Matt Carriker. Mr. Carriker on Saturday expressed disbelief and promised to issue a statement about the matter later in the week.
“We don’t vet the people who buy our shirts. ... I wish I could, I would love to keep people like that from buying, wearing, being associated with that article of clothing,” he said.
Mr. Carriker said that his brand is “personal to me,” and “to see my name next to the shooter’s name, it sucks, and I wish we could keep that from happening.”
His YouTube enterprise spans multiple channels and offers a significant amount of merchandise, firearms, and content. Generally, a large amount of his videos center around reviewing firearms and firing unusual weapons such as a double-barreled AR-style rifle, a golf ball cannon, and a tank cannon.
In his video, Mr. Carriker said he keeps “politics out” of his videos, stressing, “I don’t want any violence or hate anywhere around me,” noting that he has small children and a wife. “We generally just stay away from the topic of politics,” he said.
Following Saturday’s shooting at the Trump rally in Pennsylvania—which left former President Trump injured, a man dead, and two others injured—fans of the channel have frequently posted messages of support on the YouTube videos to support Mr. Carriker and his brand.
Since the shooting, the FBI has yet to publicly announce Mr. Crooks’s motive, and few details about him have been disclosed.
Mr. Crooks appeared to have left behind a scant online presence, and it’s not clear if he had a social media account on Facebook, X, YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat, Reddit, or TikTok. A spokesperson for the gaming and messaging platform Discord said he had an account but noted that he used it infrequently, made no politically-related comments, and did not attempt to incite violence.
Members of the Crooks family in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, have not spoken at length to media outlets. His father told CNN on Saturday that he wanted to figure out “what the [heck] was going on” and added he would give an interview after speaking to law enforcement.
Meanwhile, neighbors who have spoken to media outlets have offered few details about Mr. Crooks, while his former classmates described him as quiet and noted that he was often bullied. Phone calls to the Crooks’s home and their neighbors have not been answered.
In statements to The Epoch Times, the FBI said it gained access to Mr. Crooks’s phone earlier this week, searched his home and car, and interviewed more than 100 people.
His political leanings are also not clear. Mr. Crooks was registered as a Republican in Pennsylvania, but federal campaign finance reports also show he gave $15 to a progressive political action committee, ActBlue, on Jan. 20, 2021, the day President Joe Biden was sworn into office.
