Washington: The gunman in the assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump searched online for events of both Trump and President Joe Biden, repeatedly looked up information about explosives and saw the Pennsylvania campaign rally where he opened fire last month as a “target of opportunity,” a senior FBI official said Wednesday. Also, the FBI released the photographs of the firearms used by the shooter to target the former US President.
Investigators who have conducted nearly 1,000 interviews do not have a motive for why 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks shot at Trump during a July 13 campaign rally but they believe that he conducted “extensive attack planning," including looking up campaign events involving both the current president and former president, particularly in western Pennsylvania.
Shooter become hyperactive after Trump's event announcement: FBI
The FBI analysis of his online search history reveals a “sustained, detailed effort to plan an attack on 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 hyper-focused on that specific event and looked at 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 will Trump speak from at Butler Farm Show?” “Butler Farm Show podium and ”Butler Farm Show photos."
The new details add to an emerging portrait of Crooks as a man who investigators say had taken an eerie interest in explosives, major events and prominent political figures, but whose internet searches across major parties have frustrated efforts to assign a simple motive. “We have a clear idea of mindset, but we are not ready to make any conclusive statements regarding motive at this time,” Rojek said.
FBI releases photos of shooter's firearm
The FBI has confirmed that Trump was struck in the ear by a bullet during the attack. Crooks, who was positioned on the roof of a nearby building, fired eight shots before being killed by a Secret Service counter-sniper. “We have a clear idea of mindset, but we are not ready to make any conclusive statements regarding motive at this time,” Rojek said.
Extensive Google search
Earlier last month, former FBI director, Christopher Wray, revealed that the shooter was believed to have done a Google search one week before the shooting of “How far away was Oswald from Kennedy?” She said that the suspect had taken a keen interest in public figures but had otherwise not left behind clear clues of an ideological motive. The search, recovered from a laptop tied to 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, is a reference to Lee Harvey Oswald, the shooter who killed President John F. Kennedy from a sniper's perch in Dallas on November 22, 1963.
(With inputs from agency)
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