Donald Trump shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, googled John F Kennedy 1963 assassination week before rally attack, says FBI chief

Thomas Matthew Crooks, who attempted to assassinate Donald Trump at a campaign rally on July 13, had searched online for details about the 1963 assassination of former US President John F Kennedy – popularly known as JFK – in the days before the attack, FBI director Christopher Wray said.

While testifying before a congressional committee on Wednesday, Wray said that the 20-year-old would-be assassin did a Google search for ‘How far away was Oswald from Kennedy?’ in reference to Kennedy’s assassination by Lee Harvey Oswald.

“That obviously is significant in terms of his state of mind,” the FBI director told the committee.

Lee Harvey Oswald shot and killed John F Kennedy on November 22, 1963, from a sixth-floor window of the Texas School Book Depository as the then 35th President travelled by motorcate in Dallas.

Oswald’s shots at Kennedy’s motorcade were made from about 88 yards (around 81 metres). Thomas Crooks was even farther away, about 130 yards (around 119 metres).

Christopher Wray said that Thomas Matthew Crooks “appears to have done a lot of searches for public figures, in general” but there was no clear pattern to the research.

The FBI director further said that somewhere around July 6 or so, Thomas Crooks became “very focused” on former President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and his campaign rally in Pennsylvania.

That was the same day when Thomas Crooks registered to attend the campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, Wray said.

The FBI chief told members of the House Judiciary Committee that investigators have not established a motive for the shooting, but the federal agency are “digging hard because this is one of the central questions for us”.

Thomas Crooks fired eight shots at the Pennsylvania rally, with bullets narrowly missing Donald Trump’s face and grazing his ear. Three other rallygoers were injured as a result, and a 50-year-old volunteer firefighter was killed. A Secret Service agency quickly shot and killed the 20-year-old.

During his testimony, Christopher Wray said that no evidence emerged so far that suggested Thomas Crooks had any accomplices or co-conspirators, and he seemed to have been a “loner”.

The FBI chief also said that the gunman flew a drone over the rally venue about two hours before Trump took the stage on July 13. The activity lasted for around 11 minutes. Wray said that the drone was not flown directly over the stage but about 200 metres away.

The drone and its controller were recovered in Thomas Crooks’s car along with two “relatively crude” explosive devices, the FBI chief said. Another explosive was found in his residence.

Furthermore, Thomas Crooks bought a ladder on the day of the shooting, but it appears he did not use it. Instead, he climbed onto the roof using mechanical equipment on the ground and vertical piping.

Wray also said that the 20-year-old AR-style gun had a collapsable stock, which may explain why rally-goers or law enforcement officials didn’t see him with the weapon before the shooting.

Thomas Crooks visited the Pennsylvania rally site on at least three occasions – about a week before the shooting, for about 70 minutes on July 13 morning and again that afternoon. He bought 50 rounds of ammunition on the day of the attack and visited the Clairton Sportsmen’s Club to practice shooting the previous day.

(With inputs from agencies)

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