The 20-year-old man suspected of attempting to assassinate former US President Donald Trump searched the Internet about the assassination of John F. Kennedy on the day he registered for his campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, FBI chief Christopher Wray said Wednesday.
“Analysis of a laptop that the investigation links to the attacker revealed that on July 6, he searched Google for (information on) ‘how far (Lee Harvey) Oswald was from Kennedy,'” Vray said in testimony before the House Judiciary Committee.
“That’s the same day he apparently registered for the rally in Butler,” he said, adding that suspect Thomas Crooks then became “very focused on President Trump and his campaign rally.”
Former President Kennedy was killed in the Texas city of Dallas on November 22, 1963 by Lee Harvey Oswald.
Vrej said Kroks, a nursing home aide, fired at least eight rounds of ammunition from a rooftop near a rally on July 13, hitting the Republican presidential candidate in the ear, killing one rally-goer and wounding two others.
Kroks was using an AR-15 rifle with a collapsible stock, “which would explain why it might have been harder for people to notice,” Vrey said.
The motive for the assassination attempt is still unknown. Vrey explained that many people described Kroks as a loner and that the list of contacts in his phone was short.
Vrej also told lawmakers that Kroks flew the drone about 180 meters from the stage where Trump was addressing the crowd and live-streamed the footage for 11 minutes, about two hours before the event.
He said primitive explosive devices designed to be detonated from a distance were found in Kroks’ car and home. Crocks had a transmitter with him at the time of the shooting, Vrey added. But he said the FBI believes the suspect would not have been able to detonate the devices if he had tried.
Kimberly Cheatle resigned as head of the US Secret Service after members of both major parties demanded it over the failure to prevent an assassination attempt, Hina writes.
