The man who tried to assassinate former President Donald Trump spent months planning an attack, looking at various potential targets before settling on Trump, FBI officials said on Aug. 28.
Thomas Crooks, the 20-year-old man, searched more than 60 times for information about the Republican presidential candidate and his then-rival, Democratic President Joe Biden, before registering in early July for a July 13 rally that Trump scheduled for Pennsylvania, FBI officials told reporters in a briefing.
“We saw ... a sustained, detailed effort to plan an attack on some events, meaning he looked at any number of events or targets,” Kevin Rojek, the FBI’s top official in western Pennsylvania, said.
Rojek said Crooks became “hyper-focused” on the Trump rally when it was announced and “looked at it as a target of opportunity.”
Officials said they have still not been able to determine what motivated Crooks to try to kill Trump, who was president from 2017 to 2021 and is the Republican nominee in the 2024 race, even though they have gained some understanding of the shooter’s mindset.
Crooks searched for Trump’s campaign events as early as September 2023, FBI officials said, and began searching in April for campaign events for both Trump and President Joe Biden near where he lived in western Pennsylvania.
He also searched for the dates of both the Republican and Democratic presidential conventions, they said, and looked at information about bomb components as early as 2019.
Crooks’s computer activity also showed that he was interested in a mix of ideologies, but it did not show definitively that he was motivated by a particular left-leaning or right-leaning point of view, according to Rojek. FBI officials said they had not found any evidence indicating that Crooks had worked with other people or had been directed by a foreign power. They also said testing showed no traces of illicit drugs or alcohol in his system.
Crooks fired eight shots from a rooftop that overlooked the rally stage at the Butler Farm Show in Butler, Pennsylvania, which he reached by climbing an air conditioning unit. He was shot dead by a U.S. Secret Service countersniper, officials have said.
Trump was struck in the ear by one bullet, prompting him to drop to the ground and Secret Service agents to surround him. The former president then rose, raised a fist, and mouthed “fight” to supporters before being ushered to a waiting car.
Three rally attendees were also hit by bullets. Two survived, but the third, firefighter Corey Comperatore, died.
The FBI on Aug. 28 released pictures of evidence, including a photo of the rifle that Crooks used.
The photos showed the semiautomatic weapon, a backpack that FBI officials say Crooks likely used to carry the gun, an extendible rear stock, and an optical sight that was attached to the gun’s rail. All of the items were recovered from the rally site.
One picture showed two improvised explosive devices that law enforcement personnel discovered in a vehicle that Crooks drove to the rally site. The devices were in the trunk and did not go off. The devices “had several problems in the way they were constructed,” the bureau said.
Also on Aug. 28, U.S. lawmakers heading a House of Representatives panel investigating the assassination attempt asked the top Department of Homeland Security and Secret Service officials for more information, including transcripts of all interviews that the agencies have conducted related to the July 13 rally.
Panel members recently visited the site of the shooting.
Reuters contributed to this report.
