Thursday, July 25, 2024 - Donald Trump's would-be assassin, Thomas Crooks flew a drone 200 yards from the rally stage two hours before the shooting.
FBI Director, Christopher Wray told lawmakers the
20-year-old gunman flew a drone 200 yards from the stage just two hours before
he opened fire in Butler, Pennsylvania, and had three explosives in his car.
The bombshell revelations from the bureau's chief give more
insight into Crooks' preparation before he sh0t the former president, including
his online research on the sniper who took out JFK in 1963.
Wray said Crooks had been 'interested in public
figures' and 'somewhere around July 6 or so he became very focused on
former President Trump and his rally.'
The director said an analysis of Crooks' laptop revealed he
had searched on Google on July 6 'how far away was Oswald from Kennedy.'
It was the same day he registered to attend the Butler rally.
Lee Harvey Oswald shot and killed former President John F.
Kennedy in 1963.
Crooks was flying a drone above the rally site two hours
before the shooting and just 200 yards away from the stage, Wray has also
revealed.
Wray made the bombshell revelation to Congress on
Wednesday during a grilling by lawmakers on the investigation into the
assassination attempt on the former president and the massive security
failures.
Crooks shot Trump in the ear just 400 feet away from the
stage in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13 from the roof of a nearby building
just outside the security perimeter of the event.
Wray revealed that investigators found Crooks had a drone
that he used to survey the scene hours before the event started, which was
recovered from his car parked nearby.
He flew the drone around 4 p.m. over the area of the rally
close to '200 yards' from the stage to survey the scene. Trump took the stage
around 6:03 p.m., over two hours later.
The FBI has also recovered three 'explosive devices' in
possession of Crooks.
They were 'relatively crude devices' but had the ability 'to
be detonated remotely,' Wray said.
The FBI director also revealed the weapon used had a
'collapsible stock,' which he said 'could explain why it might've been less
easy for people to observe.'
Wray could not say whether Crooks carried the gun up to the
roof with him before he fired the shots or had stashed it there prior. He said
the gunman did not use a latter to get onto the roof but rather some sort of
'vertical piping.'
He said Crooks and his family owned a combined 14 guns and
Crooks had visited a shooting range one day before the rally. He used an
AR-style weapon that had been purchased legally by his father.
Wray said eight bullet cartridges had been recovered from
the roof where Crooks fired off his shots toward the former president.
And he wouldn't rule out that Crooks did not have any accomplices
to the crime, saying it's still being looked at by law enforcement.
Wray faced questions about why the president was allowed on
stage despite the 'threat' being identified 20 minutes before the shots were
fired.
Wray said, 'we don't know the answer to that.'
But he insisted his investigation was not focused on the
security breach and the Secret Service failures.
'Our investigation is focused on the shooter and all things
related to his attack.'
His hearing comes days after the former Director of Secret
Service Kimberly Cheatle was forced to resign after evading answering
rounds of questioning by punting to the FBI in another congressional hearing
earlier this week.
Wray promised his agency would leave 'no stone
unturned' and emphasized that he wanted to provide all the information he
had at this point of the ongoing investigation.
'The shooter may be deceased but the FBI's investigation is
very much ongoing.'
He also made a reference to the warnings he has been giving
Congress for years now about the threats of domestic terrorism.
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