The FBI said Crooks ‘had a sustained detailed effort to plan an attack on some event, meaning he looked at any number of events or targets.’
By Vered Weiss, World Israel News
The US Federal Bureau of Investigations on Thursday released photos of Thomas Matthew Crooks’s firearm he used to attempt to assassinate former president and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, and details of his attack plans, which targeted both Trump and Biden and several events.
Crooks’ internet searches indicated he was planning the attack for a while and seemed to have been considering Joe Biden as a target as well as Trump.
Kevin Rojek, special agent in charge of the FBI Pittsburgh Field Office, said Crooks “had a sustained detailed effort to plan an attack on some event, meaning he looked at any number of events or targets.”
The 20-year-old attempted assassin “became hyper-focused” on Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, and considered it a “target of opportunity.”
Butler, Pennsylvania, was ultimately the location of the attempted assassination attempt on July 12, during which a bullet from Crooks’ gun grazed Trump’s ear with a bullet that missed his brain by an inch.
The attack killed Corey Comperatore, a fireman, and Crooks’ was eliminated by law enforcement during the shooting.
Crooks “searched the former president’s campaign schedule and upcoming appearances in Pennsylvania for more than a month before the incident,” Rojek said.
Between April and July, Crooks sought speaking engagements in Pennsylvania for Donald Trump and Joe Biden.
The gunman didn’t express a political ideology that would have signaled a motive for the attack but made antisemitic and anti-immigrant posts on social media.
“The subject registered to attend the rally, and that same day he specifically searched for, ‘How far was Oswald from Kennedy?’ ‘Where will Trump speak from at Butler Farm Show,’ ‘Butler Farm show podium,’ and ‘Butler Farm show photos,'” Rojek explained.
“On July 8, the subject searched ‘AGR international.’ And on July 10, he searched ‘weather in Butler,’ and the 30 days prior to the attack, the subject conducted more than 60 searches related to President Biden and former President Trump.”
In early July, he searched,”When is the DNC convention?’ and ‘When is the RNC in 2024?’”
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