FBI chief: Trump attacker had searched the internet for information on JFK assassination
He also surveyed the area with a drone 2 hours before the rally
Thomas Matthew Crooks, who shot at Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania, searched the internet for details of the assassination of US President John F. Kennedy a few days before the attempt.
Source. This was announced by FBI Director Christopher Wray during a hearing in Congress, the BBC reports.
According to an analysis of the contents of Crooks' laptop, the boy, in particular, was interested in how far away from the president was Lee Harvey Oswald, who shot Kennedy in Dallas in November 1963, the FBI director said.
‘On 6 July, he made a search query on Google: ‘How far away was Oswald from JFK,’ Wray told members of the US House Judiciary Committee, ’a query that is probably significant in assessing his state of mind.
‘On the same day, he apparently registered to attend a rally in Butler (where he committed the assassination attempt – ed.),’ the FBI chief said.
Wray also said that Crooks was using a drone to study the rally area two hours before Trump took the stage.
The drone was in the air for 11 minutes. The drone and its remote control were found in the shooter's car, along with two explosive devices. Another bomb was found in Crooks' home, Wray added.
The FBI director said there was still no evidence that Crooks had any accomplices or co-conspirators, and he appeared to have acted alone.
The assassination attempt on Trump took place on 13 July during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Crooks opened fire with an AR-15 rifle a few minutes after Trump began his speech.
One of the bullets passed a few millimetres from the ex-president's head and hit his right ear. Two protesters were seriously injured, and a 50-year-old firefighter from Pennsylvania was killed.
Crooks, who was on the roof of a nearby building, was shot dead by a Secret Service sniper less than 30 seconds after firing the first of eight shots.
The FBI director confirmed that eight bullet casings were found on the roof where Crooks was.
Background. Earlier it became known that the director of the US Secret Service, Kimberly Cheadle, resigned from her post on Tuesday after testifying before Congress this week. She faced calls from Democrats and Republicans to resign after a tense hearing in which she called the attempted assassination of Trump ‘the most serious failure of the Secret Service in decades.’
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