The news that former President Donald Trump was the victim of an assassination has dominated the headlines for two straight weeks, and finally, there have been details about the shooter from those who lived nearby.
Additionally, there has been no decrease in the level of national interest in the gunman who came dangerously close to taking the life of the former president.
Reporters who are sifting through public material have spoken to some of the individuals who knew the shooter in their personal lives.
After the shooting, which took place in Pennsylvania, residents of the neighborhood where the 20-year-old lives are still trying to come to terms with the "evil" that was lurking just down the street, as reported by Fox News.
"That's sheer fear. If [Trump] had his head turned, he would've had his brains blown out, and that was manufactured around the corner from my house," said a neighbor who lives about the same distance from the Crooks home that the shooter was from the president when Crooks opened fire.
"There was such evil around the corner," she said Tuesday. "We're always going to have a scar from what happened and how close to us [it was]."
During the course of the summer, another woman who runs in the neighborhood on a daily basis reported that she repeatedly observed Crooks in the peaceful area in their neighborhood.
According to the neighbor, when she was trying to make friendly exchanges with the young man and garner his attention, he would "look up as though nobody had been passing him," despite the fact that she was making an effort to "look over and smile and say hello."
Journalists reported that the woman was left in a state of amazement after hearing the news of the incident that took place only forty minutes from her residence.
After more details flooded the news, the neighbor realized the perpetrator lived much closer to her home than she thought, making her life even more "surreal".
"When I first thought about the shooter being in Butler, I thought, 'Wow, that's in my backyard.' It ended up being closer. All of a sudden, it's a neighbor," she said.
The Crooks' neighbor, an elderly woman, said the gunman helped her with housework but hadn't talked much.
"I would ask Tom, ‘Would you rake the leaves? Could you shovel the driveway?’ If I saw their mail, I'd pick it up," she said. "You get shocked, but you also get mad that something like this happened."
Those who lived nearest to the Crooks residence on Milford Drive were apparently evacuated by the police for around twenty-four hours after the shooting, as it was recounted by the eyewitness.
However, they were not provided with any precise directions on where they should go, and the only reason they were instructed to evacuate was because of an inquiry into a device.
Investigators had conversations with members of the Crook family a minimum of three times during the previous week. One of these conversations took place at their residence, which was visited several days after the shooting and lasted for at least an hour.
