The gunman who tried to fatally shoot former President Donald Trump may have had a firearm with a collapsible stock, making it easier for him to carry and conceal his weapon, and had researched John F. Kennedy’s assassination, the head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation testified Wednesday.
On July 6, Thomas Crooks, 20, searched “how far away was Oswald from Kennedy,” referring to the 1963 presidential assassination, FBI Director Christopher Wray said during a House Judiciary Committee hearing.
The collapsible stock, Wray said, would explain why witnesses did not see Crooks walking around with a weapon beforehand and why the firearm was not spotted until Crooks was already on the roof.
The new details reveal how Crooks was able to evade law enforcement.
Crooks fired at least eight shots and also flew a drone about 200 yards away from the event’s main stage area in Butler, Pennsylvania, campaign rally site about two hours before it began on July 13, Wray said.
Authorities recovered the drone in Crooks’ vehicle, where they also found a drone controller and two explosive devices that had the ability to be remotely detonated, Wray said.
Crooks had a transmitter on him, the director said, adding that it appears the remote detonation “would not have worked.”
Eight bullet cartridges were found on the roof with the gunman’s body, he said.
Wray said Crooks had purchased a ladder that was about 5-ft. tall, according to a bloodied receipt that Crooks had on him, but that the ladder was not found at the scene. The FBI director said it is unclear how Crooks got on the roof.
Lawmakers have demanded answers to key questions surrounding the shooting that they say remain unanswered, particularly by former Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, who resigned Tuesday after apparently failing to fully cooperate with the House Oversight Committee the day before.
“We need to know play-by-play, moment-by-moment, second-by-second,” Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, told Wray at the start of the Wednesday morning hearing.
The Congressional committee hearings this week have since begun to yield more information.
On Tuesday, Pennsylvania State Police Col. Christopher Paris told the House Homeland Security Committee that officers with the Butler County Emergency Services Unit spotted Crooks from a second-story window and left their post to search for him.
Paris said Crooks was identified as suspicious before the shooting because he was hanging around but never attempted to enter the rally. That suspicion was later heightened, Paris said, when Crooks was seen with a rangefinder.
That day, three other people had been identified as suspicious, the state police commissioner said.
Crooks was not designated as an actual threat until seconds before he opened fire, Paris said. The gunfire struck Trump in the ear, killed one rallygoer and wounded another.
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