Washington: The gunman who attempted to assassinate former President Donald Trump searched the internet for events related to both Trump and President Joe Biden, repeatedly looked up information about explosives and viewed the Pennsylvania campaign rally where he opened fire last month as a “target of opportunity,” a senior FBI official said Wednesday. The FBI also released photographs of the firearms used by the shooter to attack the former U.S. president.
Investigators who have conducted nearly 1,000 interviews do not have a motive for 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks to shoot Trump during a campaign rally on July 13, but they believe he engaged in “extensive planning of the attack,” including seeking out campaign events involving both the current and former president, particularly in western Pennsylvania.
Shooter became hyperactive after Trump event announcement, FBI says
The FBI’s analysis of the online search history reveals a “sustained and detailed effort to plan an attack against some event, meaning he looked at any number of events or targets,” Kevin Rojek, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Pittsburgh field office, told reporters Wednesday.
Once a Trump rally was announced for July 13 in Butler, Pennsylvania, “he became inordinately focused on that specific event and viewed it as a target of opportunity,” Rojek said.
Crooks’ internet searches in the days leading up to the rally included queries about the grounds where the rally was held, “Where is Trump speaking at the Butler Farm Show?”, “Butler Farm Show podium” and “Butler Farm Show photos.”
The new details add to the emerging picture of Crooks as a man who investigators say had shown a disturbing interest in explosives, big events and prominent political figures, but whose internet searches on major parties have frustrated efforts to assign him a simple motive. “We have a clear idea of his mindset, but we are not prepared to make any conclusive statements about motive at this point,” Rojek said.
FBI releases photos of shooter’s firearm
The FBI has confirmed that Trump was shot in the ear during the attack. Crooks, who was on the roof of a nearby building, fired eight shots before being shot dead by a Secret Service sniper. “We have a clear sense of the mindset, but we are not prepared to make any conclusive statements on motive at this time,” Rojek said.
Extensive Google Search
Last month, former FBI Director Christopher Wray revealed that the shooter was believed to have done a Google search a week before the shooting for “How far was Oswald from Kennedy?” He said the suspect had taken a keen interest in public figures but had otherwise left no clear clues to an ideological motive. The search, recovered from a laptop linked to 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, is a reference to Lee Harvey Oswald, the gunman who killed President John F. Kennedy from a sniper position in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963.
(With contributions from the agency)
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