The gunman in the attack on Donald Trump, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, went to a shooting range in Pennsylvania on Friday, according to a law enforcement official.
On Saturday morning (13), the shooter went to a home and construction products store and bought a five-foot ladder before going to a weapons store and buying 50 rounds of ammunition, the source said.
Later, Crooks drove to the rally site in Butler, where the CNN previously reported that he was spotted by local authorities acting suspiciously by magnetometers outside the event. Afterwards, he was not located again until he was up on the roof.
Authorities are still working to reconstruct all of his activities in the days leading up to the shooting and have asked the public for help in piecing together a complete picture of his movements.
The FBI also gained access to Crooks’ phone, the organization said in a statement on Monday (15).
The shooter’s electronic devices are being analyzed and his home and car are being searched, according to the agency.
Investigators also conducted “nearly 100 interviews with law enforcement, event attendees and other witnesses. This work continues,” they stated.
The investigation steps are part of the FBI’s initial investigation into the shooting on Saturday (13) at a Trump rally, which is being investigated as an assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump and potential domestic terrorism.
Authorities previously said they believe Crooks acted alone and have not yet been able to identify a motive for the shooting.
Who is Thomas Matthew Crooks?
Thomas Matthew Crooks lived in the Pittsburgh suburb of Bethel Park, about an hour’s drive south of the Trump rally where law enforcement officials say he shot the former president.
A CNN interviewed more than half a dozen of the young man’s former classmates and neighbors, who portrayed him as quiet and aloof. Classmates remembered him as a “misfit” in high school.
Additionally, a review of public records suggests he may have had differing political leanings, registering to vote as a Republican but making a small donation to a Democratic-leaning group.
Find out more about the man who tried to kill Donald Trump through this article.
Other US presidents and presidential candidates have been shot
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