The sniper who shot Donald Trump trained at the range, went shopping and prepared a bomb. All in the 48 hours preceding the attack carried out on Saturday in Butler, during the former president’s rally in Pennsylvania. The investigation coordinated by the FBI has not yet clarified the motive for the attack, but has allowed us to reconstruct what he did Thomas Matthew Crooks on the eve of the attack.
On Friday, July 12, the twenty-year-old went to practice shooting at the shooting range he was registered for and then the next morning, a few hours before the rally, he stopped at Home Depot, the famous American chain of household goods, to buy a 1.6-meter ladder, evidently used shortly after to hoist himself up onto the roof from where he then shot at Trump.
The device hidden in the trunk of the car
American investigators who are reconstructing the young man’s last 48 hours add to the list of Crooks’ ‘errands’ a stop at a local gun shop to buy 50 rounds of ammunition.
Then, aboard his Hyundai Sonata, the young man drove for about an hour to join thousands of Trump supporters who had arrived in Butler, Pennsylvania, for the former president’s rally. He parked the car, in the trunk of which he had hidden a rudimentary explosive device which was connected to a device he had with him. His attack could have been even more devastating, if he had managed to detonate the explosive hidden in the car before being killed, investigative sources told CNN.
The political motive is still without evidence
In addition to reconstructing Crooks’ actual movements, we are also trying to decipher the traces left on the Internet and on social media. But even after gaining access to his phone and computer, investigators, who also interviewed dozens of Crooks’ family members and friends, still found no evidence of a political or ideological motive, sources familiar with the matter told CNN.
Give her analysis of computers and other electronic devices Routine online activity emerged, with an interest in video games and computer coding, and for example no trace of visits to sites with instructions for assembling explosive devices.
20 weapons in the family
To shoot Trump, Crooks used one of 20 legally owned guns stored in the family home. And it was with his father that the young man attended the Clairton Sportsmen’s Club, a shooting range a 25-minute drive from their home that has about 2,000 members.
#Trump #attack #mystery #motive #sniper #shooting