FBI says gunman spent months seeking a target, then settled on Trump

A Panther Arms semiautomatic rifle used by former U.S. President Donald Trump's attacker Thomas Crooks, recovered with a backpack at the Butler, Pennsylvania shooting scene, appears broken down as investigators suspect is the way it was carried, in an undated photograph as part of the FBI investigation's evidence photos released August 28, 2024. FBI/Handout via REUTERS

WASHINGTON - 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 Wednesday.

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," Kevin Rojek, the FBI's top official in western Pennsylvania, said 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.

There were no traces of illicit drugs or alcohol in his system.

The assassination attempt prompted questions about how Crooks was able to climb a nearby building and fire eight shots at the former president before being killed by a Secret Service sharpshooter. Several congressional and government probes are examining the event's security measures.

The FBI, meanwhile, is investigating Crooks himself. Officials said they had gained some understanding of his mindset, even if they still did not know what motivated him.

Crooks searched for Trump's campaign events as early as September 2023, FBI officials said, and began searching in April for campaign events for both candidates near where he lived in western Pennsylvania.

He also searched for the dates of both the Republican and Democratic presidential conventions, they said.

In the days leading up to the July 13 rally, he searched for information about the site, including where Trump would speak and details of the company that owned a nearby building where he would later fire the eight shots, one of which grazed Trump's ear. Video evidence shows Crooks was only on the building's roof for about six minutes.

Crooks, who left several explosive devices in his car, had searched for information about bomb components as early as 2019.