Donald Trump will be interviewed as part of the investigation into his own assassination attempt, the FBI has said.
This comes as it emerged that police noticed gunman Thomas Crooks more than an hour before he opened fire, and even took a photo of him to share with other law enforcement officers.
The previous president Crooks shot him in the ear during a rally on July 13 in Butler, Pennsylvania.
“We want to get your perspective on what you observed,” Kevin Rojek, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Pittsburgh field office, said Monday.
The long-awaited interview with the 2024 Republican presidential candidate is part of the FBI’s standard protocol for speaking with victims of federal crimes during the course of its investigations.
Through some 450 interviews, the FBI has created a portrait of the gunman.
Crooks, aged 20, was said to be a “very intelligent” but lonely young man, who maintained few friends and acquaintances.
The FBI named Thomas Matthew Crooks about seven hours after the alleged assassination attempt on Donald Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania.
The gunman was identified and located by the SWAT team
Rojek added: “Authorities identified the shooter as a suspicious person.”
He said a local officer took a photo of Crooks and sent it to other law enforcement officers at the protest site.
Then, about 30 minutes later, SWAT team operators saw Crooks using a rangefinder and browsing news sites, Rojek said.
At around 5:56 p.m. local time, Crooks was seen carrying a backpack, less than 20 minutes before the shooting occurred.
At 6:08 p.m. he was caught on a police dash camera walking on the roof from where he finally fired, Rojek added.
Snipers eventually killed Crooks after he opened fire at the rally, wounding Trump and killing Corey Comperatore, 50, a bystander.
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The assassination attempt was widely planned
Criminals also searched online for details about mass shootings, power plants and improvised explosive devices, the FBI said.
It is still unclear what Crooks’ motives were for the attack, but investigators believe the shooting was largely planned.
This included the purchase of precursor chemicals in recent months, which investigators believe were used to create explosive devices found in his car.
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The day Crooks registered to attend the Trump rally, he searched online: “How far was Oswald from Kennedy?” in reference to Lee Harvey Oswald, the shooter who killed President John F. Kennedy from a sniper position in Dallas on November 22, 1963.
Crooks’ parents have been “extremely cooperative,” Rojek said, adding that they had no knowledge of their son’s plans.
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