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FBI says Trump gunman spent months seeking target, then settled on Trump
FBI officials said they had not found any evidence indicated that Crooks had worked with other people, or had been directed by a foreign power.
FILE PHOTO: A Bethel Park police officer looks at the home of 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, named by the FBI as the "subject involved" in the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, U.S. July 15, 2024. / REUTERS/Aaron Josefczyk
The gunman who tried to kill Donald Trump mounted a "sustained, detailed effort" to attack a major gathering of some sort before deciding to target the Republican presidential candidate at a Pennsylvania rally in July, FBI officials said on Aug. 28.
FBI officials said Thomas Crooks, 20, searched more than 60 times for information about the Republican presidential candidate and his then-rival, Democratic President Joe Biden, before registering for the Trump rally in early July.
"We saw ... a sustained, detailed effort to plan an attack on some events, meaning he looked at any number of events or targets," said Kevin Rojek, the FBI's top official in western Pennsylvania, in a telephone briefing to reporters.
Rojek said Crooks became "hyper focused" on the Trump rally when it was announced in early July "and looked at it as a target of opportunity."
Rojek said the FBI has not yet been able to determine what motivated Crooks to try to assassinate Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13.
Crooks' computer activity showed he was interested in a mix of ideologies, but did not show definitively that he was motivated by a particular left-leaning or right-leaning point of view, Rojek said.
FBI officials said they had not found any evidence indicated that Crooks had worked with other people, or had been directed by a foreign power.
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