The gunman who tried to assassinate Donald Trump at a campaign rally searched the internet for details about the shooting of U.S. President John F. Kennedy in November 1963 in the days before the attack, the FBI director said Wednesday.
FBI chief Christopher Wray, testifying before a congressional committee, said the gunman flew a drone over the site where the former president was scheduled to speak about two hours before he took the stage in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13.
Wray told members of the House Judiciary Committee that investigators have not established a motive for the shooting, but “we are investigating thoroughly because this is one of the central questions for us.”
Trump survived the assassination attempt, suffering a wound to his right ear, and a Secret Service sniper shot and killed the suspected gunman, identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, less than 30 seconds after he fired eight shots.
“With respect to former President Trump, there is some question as to whether it was a bullet or shrapnel that struck his ear,” FBI chief Wray said.
Two protesters were seriously injured and a 50-year-old Pennsylvania firefighter was shot and killed.
Wray said Crooks “appears to have done a lot of searching for public figures, in general,” but there was no clear pattern to the investigation.
“Many of the usual repositories of information have not provided anything remarkable in terms of motive or ideology,” he said.
“Beginning around July 6, there was a lot of focus on former President Trump and this rally,” the FBI chief said, registering that same day to attend the campaign event in Butler, Pennsylvania.
“On July 6, he did a Google search saying, 'How far was Oswald from Kennedy?'” he said, referring to Kennedy's assassination by Lee Harvey Oswald.
“That's obviously significant in terms of his mental state.”
The FBI director said no evidence has emerged so far that Crooks had accomplices or co-conspirators and that he appears to have been a “loner.”
Crooks was on the roof of a nearby building and opened fire on Trump with an AR-style assault rifle shortly after 6 p.m. as the Republican White House candidate was addressing a rally in Butler.
Drone flight
U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned Tuesday, a day after acknowledging the agency had failed in its mission to prevent the assassination attempt.
Wray said Crooks flew a drone over the protest area for about 11 minutes, sometime between 3:50 p.m. and 4:00 p.m., on the day of the attack.
He said it did not fly directly over the stage but about 200 meters away.
The drone and its controller were recovered in the gunman's car along with two “relatively crude” explosive devices, Wray said.
Another explosive device was found at Crooks' residence.
Wray said the gunman purchased a ladder on the day of the shooting, but it appears he did not use it. Instead, he climbed onto the roof using mechanical equipment on the ground and a vertical pipe.
Wray also said Crooks' AR-style weapon had a folding stock, which could explain why protest attendees or law enforcement members did not see him with the gun before the shooting.
He said Crooks visited the protest site on at least three occasions: about a week before the shooting, for about 70 minutes on the morning of the protest and again that afternoon.
He bought 50 rounds of ammunition on the day of the attack and visited a shooting range the day before.
