The young gunman who tried to assassinate former US President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania flew a drone over the area two hours before the event began, the FBI director told a panel of US lawmakers on Wednesday.
Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, who was on the roof of a building overlooking the rally in Butler, opened fire on the Republican candidate shortly after 6 p.m. on Saturday, July 13, slightly wounding him in the ear, killing a participant in his fifties and wounding two other people before being shot dead.
The drone and the control lever were found in the shooter’s vehicle, along with “rather basic” explosive devices that could be activated remotely.
The investigation has not yet clarified the shooter’s motivations, admitted the head of the FBI (federal police), Christopher Wray, “but we are continuing to look.”
He did, however, specify that eight shell casings were found on the roof.
The shooter “conducted extensive searches on various figures,” without a specific target being identified, but “beginning on July 6, he focused more specifically on former President Trump and his rally,” Wray added.
Among the searches carried out, the shooter asked the Google search engine “what was the distance at which [Lee Harvey] Oswald was from [John F.] Kennedy”, referring to the alleged perpetrator of the assassination of the American president in 1963.
The reaction of the Secret Service, responsible for protecting senior American political figures, was strongly criticized after spectators reported to the authorities, shortly before the shooting, the presence of an armed man at the meeting.
Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle announced her resignation Tuesday after admitting to a congressional inquiry that her agency failed to prevent the assassination attempt.