(AFP) – Former US president Donald Trump has agreed to meet with the FBI for a “victim interview” about this month’s assassination attempt, bureau officials said Monday.
Providing an update on the status of the probe into the July 13 shooting, Federal Bureau of Investigation officials said they have still not determined a motive for the attack by the 20-year-old gunman, Thomas Matthew Crooks. They said Crooks, who was shot dead by a Secret Service sniper after firing eight shots during Trump’s campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, appeared to be a “loner” and they have not identified any co-conspirators.
FBI special agent Kevin Rojek said the interview with Trump will be “a standard victim interview like we would do for any other victim of crime under any other circumstances.” “We want to get his perspective on what he observed,” Rojek said. FBI officials said they have interviewed dozens of people who knew or interacted with Crooks, including family members, co-workers, former teachers, classmates and others.
“We have learned the subject was highly intelligent, attended college and maintained steady employment,” Rojek said. “His primary social circle appears to be limited to his immediate family as we believe he had few friends and acquaintances.” The FBI officials said Crooks’s parents have said they had no advance knowledge of their son’s plot. “We do find that to be credible at this stage,” Rojek said.
FBI Director Christopher Wray, testifying before a congressional committee last week, said Crooks had searched online for details about the November 1963 shooting of US president John F. Kennedy by Lee Harvey Oswald. “On July 6, he did a Google search for, quote, ‘How far away was Oswald from Kennedy?'” Wray said. Rojek said the investigation has revealed that Crooks “also made searches related to power plants, mass shooting events, information on improvised explosive devices and the attempted assassination of the Slovakian prime minister earlier this year.”
– ‘Suspicious person’ –
Crooks was perched on the roof of a nearby building and opened fire on Trump with an AR-style assault rifle shortly after 6:00 pm, as the Republican White House candidate was addressing the rally in Butler. Trump was wounded in the ear, two rally attendees were seriously injured and a 50-year-old Pennsylvania firefighter was shot dead.
Rojek said Crooks was identified as a “suspicious person” by law enforcement about an hour before the shooting. “A local officer took a photo of the subject and sent it to other SWAT operators on scene, as well as local command personnel,” he said. SWAT operators observed Crooks about 30 minutes later, shortly after 5:30 pm, using a range finder and browsing news websites on his phone, he said.
At approximately 6:08 pm, police dashcam video observed Crooks traversing the roof of the building from where he ultimately fired his shots, Rojek said. “At approximately 6:11 pm, a local police officer was boosted onto the roof by another officer where he encountered the subject,” he said. Crooks pointed his rifle at the officer, who “immediately dropped to the ground,” he said. “Approximately 25 to 30 seconds after this encounter, the subject fired eight rounds before being successfully neutralized.”
US Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned last week after acknowledging the agency had failed in its mission to prevent the assassination attempt.
– Chris Lefkow
© 2024 AFP
