Thomas Matthew Crooks, who attempted to assassinate now-President Donald Trump in July, was in the process of designing a bomb, according to documents obtained by CBS News.

Crooks, 20, ordered more than two gallons of nitromethane from an online specialty fuel retailer using an encrypted email account. When the purchase hadn’t shipped 12 days later, Crooks reached out wanting to know why.

“Hello, my name is Thomas. I placed an order on your website on January 19. I have not received any updates of the order shipping out yet and I was wondering if you still have it and when I can expect it to come,” Crooks emailed the retailer, Hyperfuels, at 7:44 a.m. on Jan. 31, 2024, according to CBS News.

The email was sent using Crooks’ Community College of Allegheny County email account, which CBS News said was an operation misstep.

Crooks was a registered Republican from Bethel Park who donated money to a politically liberal group before he was old enough to vote, according to previous reporting by TribLive. He lived in Bethel Park, a South Hills suburb of more than 33,000 people that is about 50 miles south of the Butler Farm Show grounds where the attempted assassination occurred on July 13, 2024.

Crooks was killed by the Secret Service just after he fired shots at Trump.

Crooks graduated from Bethel Park High School in 2022 and worked as a dietary aide at Bethel Park Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Center.

Just two weeks after the nitromethane email, on Feb. 13, 2024, Crooks focused on his academic future, planning a video call he labeled, “Proofread my Pitt personal essay with friends prior to class.”

Crooks was hoping to transfer from community college to a four-year engineering program, according to CBS News. He was a meticulous and motivated student, attending community college after scoring 1530 on the SATs. He told an adviser he was starting at the school to save money before transferring.

According to the hundreds of college emails obtained by CBS News, Crooks completed A-level work in most of his courses, his transcript says. Emails also show professors impressed by his dedication.

“Thanks again for your contribution to the class this term — wouldn’t’ve been the same without you!” wrote an English professor in December 2022.

Also, in an engineering class, Crooks, whose mother is visually impaired, designed and 3D-printed a unique chessboard. The prototype included Braille labeling along the rows and columns, and alternating “raised squares with peg-holes to prevent the pieces from being knocked over,” as Crooks described it, CBS News reported.

“It was above and beyond what anybody expected,” engineering professor Todd Landree said.

The emails also noted that Crooks wrote about Trump at least once.

The essay was called “Why Nuclear Energy is the Key to a Cleaner Future,” and Crooks briefly touched on the proliferation of nuclear weapons, criticizing a decision Trump made during his first term, CBS News said.

“To prevent hostile nations from acquiring nuclear technology, America and its allies can stop sales of the technology to those nations and can enter into mutually beneficial agreements like the Iran deal, which effectively halted that nations (sic) nuclear program until President Trump withdrew from it,” Crooks wrote.

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