The FBI director said on Wednesday that it is possible the gunman who attempted to kill former President Donald Trump owned a rifle with a collapsible stock, which would have made it simpler for him to carry and conceal the weapon.
FBI Director Christopher Wray stated that the gunman had also done research on the killing of President John F. Kennedy.
Wray stated during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on July 5 that Thomas Crooks, 20, had made his first visit to Butler, Pennsylvania, the location of Trump’s July 13 presidential campaign event.
According to Wray, Crooks registered for the demonstration the following day and looked up “how far was Oswald from Kennedy,” a reference to the 1963 assassination.
This week’s congressional hearings have started to provide light on how Crooks managed to get away from the police and start shooting at Trump. The testimony of Wray has provided the most lucid chronology of Crooks’ actions on the day of the shooting and in the week preceding it, underscoring his degree of preparedness.
He returned to the campaign site the morning of the rally, spending roughly an hour there before leaving that afternoon to purchase fifty rounds of ammo.
Just before 4 p.m., according to Wray, Crooks returned to the rally location and launched a drone approximately 200 yards away from the main stage area.
Witnesses started yelling about a suspicious figure on the roof of a nearby building two hours later.
Wray speculated that Crooks might have possessed a collapsible stock, which would account for the fact that witnesses did not observe him carrying a weapon previously and that the gun was not discovered until after Crooks had climbed onto the roof.
According to Wray, Crooks started shooting at least eight times as soon as he realized a law enforcement official on the ground had noticed him.
With a help from a comrade, the officer managed to raise his head over the ceiling. According to Wray, Crooks shot at Trump after pointing his gun at the officer and making him fall.
The FBI is still unaware of Crooks’ motivation. The lack of “significant clues” from the inquiry, according to Wray, has been disappointing.
But he added that there are “indications” that Crooks was drawn to celebrities and that, approximately a week prior to July 13, he became “very focused” on Trump and the rally.
The fact that important issues have gone unanswered has angered lawmakers, especially Kimberly Cheatle, who resigned on Tuesday as director of the Secret Service after Republicans accused her of not cooperating completely with the House Oversight Committee during her hearing the previous day.
At the beginning of the hearing on Wednesday, Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, stated to Wray, “We must be aware of every play, every minute, and every second.”
According to Wray, the drone was found by the FBI in Crooks’ vehicle along with two remotely detonable explosive devices and a drone controller.
Wray stated that Crooks possessed a transmitter and that it seems the remote detonation “would not have worked.”
He added that eight bullet cartridges and the gunman’s body were discovered together on the roof.
Wray claimed that despite having a bloody receipt on him, Crooks had purchased a five-foot-tall ladder; however, the ladder was not discovered at the site. It’s unknown how Crooks climbed onto the roof, according to Wray.
The day before the attempted murder, Crooks, a “fairly avid shooting hobbyist,” visited a shooting range, “probably” using the same AR-style rifle he had used at the protest, according to Wray.
The Pennsylvania State Police commander, Col. Christopher Paris, reported to the House Homeland Security Committee on Tuesday that members of the Butler County Emergency Services Unit had seen Crooks from a second-story window and had left their station to look for him.
Paris stated that because Crooks was loitering but never attempted to enter the demonstration, he was flagged as suspicious before to the shooting. Later, when Crooks was spotted with a range finder, Paris claimed that the suspicion was increased.
Paris added that three other people had been flagged as suspicious that day.
According to Paris, Crooks wasn’t considered a real threat until just before he started shooting. In addition to two other individuals being hurt, a rallygoer lost their life and Trump was shot in the ear.