FBI reveals details of shooter’s search history before Trump assassination

The details, including Thomas Matthew Crooks’ involvement in the attempted assassination of Prime Minister Robert Fico, were released as agents continue to analyze data from the gunman’s cellphones, laptop and other digital devices. Fico was shot and seriously injured in Slovakia in May.

In a phone call with reporters on Monday, FBI officials said Trump had agreed to an FBI interview about the assassination attempt on him at a July 13 campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

“We want to get his perspective on what he observed,” said Kevin Rojek, the FBI’s Pittsburgh field office chief, which is leading the investigation. “It’s a standard interview that we would do with any other crime victim.”

Crooks’ motive for the shooting is still unclear, FBI officials said, and they have not yet found evidence linking other people to the attack. Officials said they are continuing to search the shooter’s phones, as well as his gaming and social media accounts, for a possible motive or evidence that he may have been working with an accomplice.

He used aliases and at least some encrypted communications accounts to purchase weapons accessories and materials for building explosive devices, officials said.

Trump was speaking at an outdoor rally when Crooks, 20, opened fire from a rooftop just outside the security perimeter. The gunman fired at least eight shots, killing one person in the crowd, seriously wounding two others and wounding Trump before being killed by a Secret Service sniper.

The FBI said last week that a bullet or bullet fragment grazed the former president’s ear.

Investigators found two explosive devices in Crooks’ car, which was parked at the rally site. Although the devices could have set off explosions, both were deactivated when they were found, officials said Monday.

Agents conducted more than 450 interviews, including with Crooks’ parents, who apparently had no information about the attack before it occurred and cooperated with authorities, officials said.

“We believe the suspect made significant efforts to conceal his activities,” Rojek said.

While the FBI is primarily focused on the shooter and his actions prior to the assassination, several other investigations are looking into the security lapses that allowed a man with a rifle to gain a vantage point from which he could fire at the president from about 450 feet (137 meters) away.

Rojek said the gunman climbed heating and cooling equipment near a building to get to the roof, then crossed several other roofs before settling on the spot from which he planned to launch the attack.

Investigators have tried to piece together the gunman’s activities before the early evening attack. They said he drove to the rally around 11 a.m. and spent about an hour there before heading home, about 50 miles away.

Later that day, he told his parents he was going to a shooting range, but actually drove back to the gathering site. He arrived there around 3:45 p.m. and flew his drone over the site for about 10 minutes, officials said. Because there was no memory card in the drone, investigators were unable to determine what information the shooter had gleaned from it about the site’s security, officials said.

He left the rally site for about an hour before returning to get into position for his eventual attack, officials said. He was carrying a backpack and an AR-style weapon with a folding stock, an improvement on weapons that makes them more compact.

Officials said they were still investigating how he was able to conceal the weapon at the rally.

The shooter was a “highly intelligent” man who had a college education and a steady job, officials said. They said they had a hard time finding out much about him or his possible motive, in part because he did not have many friends.

His social circle consisted primarily of his immediate family, according to officials. The family owned more than a dozen firearms, and the younger Crooks became interested in firearms as a hobby years ago. That hobby evolved into more formal shooting training and instruction in September 2023, according to officials.

His father, who originally purchased the weapon used in the 2013 attack, legally transferred ownership of the weapon to his son last year.

“We believe that he had few friends and acquaintances throughout his life,” Rojek said.

Separately, on Monday, aides to Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) shared text messages with police officers assisting with security that day, showing that they even suspect However, he was seen with a weapon just moments before the attack.

Nearly two hours before the gunman began shooting, a local police officer sent a text message to his colleagues saying he had seen a young man at a picnic table where he Watch sniper combat on a rooftop. “He knows you’re up there,” the police officer wrote.

About an hour later, about half an hour before the shooting, another The police officer texted others with his concerns, saying there was someone with “a rangefinder looking toward the stage.”

“FYI, if you want to notify SS snipers, have them be on guard. I lost track of him,” the officer wrote, referring to the Secret Service.

The text exchange was reported on Sunday by the New York Times and ABC News.

FBI officials are not investigating any security lapses at the event, but noted that during previous sightings of Crooks that day, no one reported seeing him with a gun.

That didn’t happen until a local police officer was lifted up to peer onto the roof where the shooter was and saw him holding a rifle. The officer dropped down because he didn’t have a free hand to draw his own weapon, Butler County Sheriff Michael T. Slupe told The Post earlier this month.

About 30 seconds after that encounter, the gunman opened fire, FBI officials said Monday.

Samuel Oakford contributed to this report.