WASHINGTON: The gunman who tried to assassinate Donald Trump at a campaign rally had searched online for information about the November 1963 shooting death of US President John F. Kennedy in the days before the attack, the FBI chief said on Wednesday.
FBI Chief Christopher Wray testified before a congressional committee that the gunman flew a drone over where the former president was scheduled to speak about two hours before he was due to speak in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13.
Ray told members of the House Judiciary Committee that investigators have not yet found a motive for the shooting, but “we are searching hard because that is one of the key questions for us.”
Trump survived the assassination with a cut to his right ear, and the Secret Service gunman shot and killed the suspected gunman, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, less than 30 seconds after he had fired eight shots.
“Former President Trump, there was some question as to whether it was a bullet or shrapnel that landed in his ear,” FBI Chief Vray said.
Two protesters were seriously injured, and a 50-year-old Pennsylvania firefighter was shot dead.
“It seems like Crooks is doing a lot of searches on public figures in general,” Ray said, but there was no clear pattern to the research.
“A lot of the conventional data doesn’t provide any significant information in terms of motivation or ideology,” he said.
“Since about July 6, he became very interested in former President Trump and this rally,” the FBI chief said, and he signed up that same day to attend a campaign event in Butler, Pennsylvania.
“On July 6, he Googled, ‘How far away is Oswald from Kennedy?’” he said, referring to the assassination of Kennedy by Lee Harvey Oswald.
“That’s very important in terms of his mental state.”
The FBI director said there is currently no evidence to suggest Crooks had an accomplice or co-conspirator, and that he appeared to be a “lone wolf.”
Crooks perched 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 presidential candidate was addressing a rally in Butler.
U.S. intelligence chief Kimberly Cheatley resigned Tuesday, a day after admitting the agency failed to fulfill its mission in preventing the assassination attempt.
Ray said Crooks flew the drone over the protest site for about 11 minutes — between 3:50 p.m. and 4 p.m. — on the day of the attack.
He said it did not fly directly over the stage but was about 200 yards (meters) away.
Officers found a drone and its controller in the gunman’s vehicle, along with two “pretty crude” explosive devices, Ray said.
Another explosive device was found in Crooks' home.
Ray said the gunman bought a ladder on the day of the shooting but apparently never used it, so he climbed onto the roof using ground-level machinery and vertical pipes.
Additionally, Ray said Crooks’ AR-style rifle had a collapsible stock, which may explain why protesters or law enforcement did not see him carrying the gun before the shooting.
He said Crooks had been to the rally site at least three times: about a week before the shooting, for about 70 minutes the morning of the rally and again that afternoon.
On the day of the incident, he had purchased 50 rounds of ammunition and had also gone to the shooting range the day before.
