Thomas Michael Crooks also managed to fly a drone around the rally site without being detected, Christopher Wray told Congress
FBI Director Christopher Wray told lawmakers on Wednesday that Thomas Michael Crooks, the man who attempted to assassinate former President Donald Trump, had researched the assassination of John F. Kennedy before opening fire on July 13. Crooks shot Trump in the ear during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. The 20-year-old gunman, firing from a rooftop that the Secret Service inexplicably left unguarded, killed one person in the audience and injured two others before Secret Service snipers shot him dead.
Wray testified before the House Judiciary Committee, stating that an FBI examination of Crooks’ computer revealed he began researching the JFK assassination on July 6, the same day he registered to attend the Trump rally. Wray said, “He did a Google search for – quote – ‘how far away was Oswald from Kennedy’,” referring to Lee Harvey Oswald, the gunman accused of shooting Kennedy in 1963.
“That’s a search that’s obviously significant in terms of his state of mind,” Wray said, adding that Crooks had become “very focused on President Trump and his rally” at the time.
Wray’s testimony provided little insight into Crooks’ motivation. The FBI chief maintained that the shooter had no accomplices or co-conspirators and did not speculate about his political affiliations. Wray noted that Crooks conducted “a lot of searches of public figures in general” before focusing on Trump, warning that “it is, quite frankly, a dangerous time to be a prominent public official.”
Wray did not address the number of Secret Service snipers present at the rally or allegations that the agency had reduced Trump’s security detail before the event. He did, however, disclose that Crooks visited the Butler site three times and “was flying the drone around the area” just two hours before Trump’s appearance on the day of the rally.
Republicans have strongly criticized the Secret Service for failing to secure the rooftop, despite its proximity to the stage, and for ignoring reports of an armed Crooks on the roof minutes before the shooting.
Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned on Tuesday, a day after telling the Oversight Committee that she accepted responsibility for the “most significant operational failure at the Secret Service in decades.”