Before targeting the Republican candidate, the shooter flew over the site with a drone

The sequence of events is becoming clearer. The young gunman who attempted to assassinate former US President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania flew over the scene with a drone two hours before the event began, FBI Director Christopher Wray told House of Representatives members in Washington on Wednesday, July 24.

The drone and the control lever were found in the vehicle of Thomas Crookswith explosive devices “rather basic”which can be activated remotely. The investigation has not yet made it possible to clarify the shooter’s motivations, the FBI boss also acknowledged, “but we continue to search.” He said eight shell casings were found on the roof.

The shooter also “carried out a lot of research on various personalities”without a specific objective being identified, but “From July 6, he focused more specifically on former President Trump and his rally”Christopher Wray added. Among the searches the shooter made, he queried Google “how far was it from [Lee Harvey] Oswald was from [John F.] Kennedy”in reference to the author of the assassination of the American president in 1963.

Installed on the roof of a building overlooking the meeting in Butler, Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, opened fire on the Republican candidate on Saturday, July 13, shortly after 6 p.m., slightly injuring him in the ear, resulting in the death of a participant in his fifties and injuring two other people, before being shot dead.