WASHINGTON – The shooter in attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump He is believed to have flown a drone around the Pennsylvania rally site in advance in an apparent attempt to survey the site before the event, a law enforcement official said Saturday.
The drone was recovered by the FBI, which is leading the investigation into last Saturday’s shooting at the rally for Thomas Matthew Crooks, aged 20.
Crooks fired several shots from the roof of a building adjacent to the Butler Farm Show grounds, where Trump was speaking, before being shot to death by a Secret Service counter-sniper. The existence of the device and its use at some point before the shooting could help explain why Crooks knew how to shoot from that point.
The official who described the drone was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. Details of the drone were first reported by The Wall Street Journal.
Trump said this week that a bullet hit his right ear. A memo released Saturday by the Trump campaign and authored by Texas Rep. Ronny Jackson, who served as the GOP-appointed White House physician, said Trump suffered a gunshot wound to his right ear from a high-powered rifle that came “ less than a quarter of an inch entered his head and reached the top of his right ear.
One of the bullets aimed at Trump died Firefighter Corey Comperatore, 50 years old, a spectator who was in the stands. Two others were seriously injured.
The FBI continues to investigate what may have motivated Crooks to carry out the attack. So far, authorities have not found any ideological bias that could help explain his actions.
Investigators who searched your phone I found photos of Trump, President Joe Biden and other senior administration officials, and also discovered that he had looked up the dates of the Democratic National Convention as well as Trump’s appearances. He also looked for information about major depressive disorder.
More details about the investigation are expected to be released next week when FBI Director Chris Wray appears before the House Judiciary Committee.
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Associated Press writer Jill Colvin contributed to this report.
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