The man who tried to assassinate former President Donald Trump was a “loner” gun enthusiast who seemed to be interested in public figures and only recently began to zero in on Mr. Trump as a target for an attack, the FBI said Wednesday.
Director Christopher A. Wray delivered his agents’ latest assessment of Thomas Matthew Crooks in testimony to Congress, saying they had yet to uncover any deep ideological leanings that would explain the attempt to kill Mr. Trump.
Instead, they have found troubling internet activity, including a July 6 Google search to determine the distance of Lee Harvey Oswald from President Kennedy in 1963. That same day, the shooter registered to attend Mr. Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
A day later, he made his first visit to scout the rally site and stayed for about 20 minutes.
The day before the shooting, the man went to a gun range where he practiced with an AR-15-style rifle. On July 13, he made a morning visit to the rally site for about 70 minutes and then went to a store and bought 50 rounds of ammunition. He returned to the rally site in the afternoon.
He flew a drone around part of the site at 4 p.m. Two hours later, he climbed up a pipe on the outside of the AGR building, where he made his sniper’s perch, and fired at least eight shots toward Mr. Trump.
SEE ALSO: Trump shooter searched for distance of Kennedy assassination
The former president was bloodied in the ear by one round. One rallygoer was killed, and two others were critically wounded.
Mr. Wray said the shooter’s social media and other usual avenues haven’t revealed much about motives other than internet searches that spanned both political parties and even foreign officials.
“It does appear fairly clear that he was interested in public figures kind of more broadly and, I think this is important, starting somewhere around July 6 or so, he became very focused on former President Trump and this rally,” Mr. Wray said.
That was also when he searched for the distance, about 180 feet, at which Oswald took the shot that killed Kennedy. He then registered to attend the rally.
Mr. Wray said agents consider that search essential to unraveling the shooter’s state of mind.
Mr. Wray said agents now believe the shooter accessed the roof of the building by using “some mechanical equipment” and a vertical pipe to climb the side of the building.
SEE ALSO: Trump shooter flew drone just two hours before assassination attempt, says FBI chief
“In other words, we do not believe he used a ladder to get up there,” the FBI chief said.
At some point, law enforcement became suspicious and then alarmed over the man’s behavior. Just before the 6:11 p.m. shooting, a local law enforcement officer tried to climb to the roof. The shooter turned his weapon on the officer, who retreated, then opened fire toward Mr. Trump, according to Mr. Wray’s preliminary timeline.
The director said the Secret Service countersnipers were alerted to the gunman just before the first shot.
He confirmed reports that the shooter flew a drone at the rally site about two hours before Mr. Trump took the stage. The FBI has the drone.
Agents also recovered three explosives — two from the shooter’s vehicle and one from his residence. Mr. Wray described them as relatively crude, though he said they were set up to be remotely detonated and the shooter had a detonating transmitter on the rooftop. Because of the on-off switch, it does not appear that the shooter could have detonated the devices from the rooftop.
Mr. Wray said agents found eight shell casings at the scene of the shooting, suggesting a total of eight rounds fired toward the president.
The director described the shooter, who was killed by a Secret Service sniper, as a “fairly avid shooting hobbyist.”
He said the AR-style gun was bought by the shooter’s father in 2013, and the father sold it to the son in October. All told, some 14 guns were in the home where the shooter lived with his parents.
Mr. Wray, in response to a question about whether the parents knew anything, said they were cooperating in the investigation. Indeed, Mr. Wray said there are no indications that the shooter was working with accomplices at all.
Mr. Wray also dismissed earlier claims that the shooter, whom he described as a “gamer,” had posted a warning to a gaming platform that July 13 would be his “premier.” That, the FBI director said, was a “sick joke” by someone who created the profile after the assassination attempt.
Questions have swirled over the Secret Service’s handling of Mr. Trump’s security and how a gunman was able to get a line of sight of the former president from an undefended rooftop. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned this week after calls from lawmakers in both parties to quit.
Sen. Charles E. Grassley, Iowa Republican, revealed Tuesday that a counter-drone operative was listed on the Secret Service’s personnel list for the Butler event. Mr. Grassley prodded Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who oversees the Secret Service, on whether the agency detected the shooter’s drone flight and what steps were taken.
Other Republicans have complained that it took too much time for authorities to identify the shooter as a suspicious person and neutralize him — only after he had fired at least eight shots.
Mr. Wray said those are generally issues for the Secret Service, and his agency is involved in the investigation into the shooter. He said local law enforcement didn’t see the 20-year-old man on the roof until minutes before the attempt — without a gun.
It wasn’t until “seconds” before the shooting that the local officer tried to climb up to the roof and was confronted by the man.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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