USA, “he had no ideologies”. The mystery of the attacker who wanted to kill Trump –

In recent months he had done at least sixty online searches on Donald Trump and Joe Biden, and in recent days he had focused on the tycoon’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, just a forty-minute drive from where the attacker lived. These are some of the details made public by the FBI and regarding the investigation into Thomas Matthew Crooks, the 20-year-old attacker killed by Secret Service agents after the attempted assassination of Trump during the campaign rally in Butler, on July 13. Before being hit by US intelligence snipers, Crooks had fired at least eight shots, grazing the former president, killing one person in the audience, and wounding two others.

Crooks, according to the FBI, “had no ideology.” “He did not show – they added – any right-wing or left-wing leanings.” “He had in mind to attack a series of events,” Special Agent Kevin Rojek explained to reporters. “When the rally in Butler, near the boy’s home, was announced, his attention was focused on that event, seen as a great opportunity.” On July 6, a week before the rally, Crooks had done a search by typing the phrase “where Trump will speak at the Butler Farm Show” and “Butler Farm Show podium.” He had also looked for photos of the site and in particular of the buildings around the area, one of which would later be used as a base. Two days later, Crooks had done an online search for the company that owned the buildings around the perimeter of the rally area.

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On July 9, the boy had researched the “ballistics” of the shots, typing the phrase “how far was Oswald from Kennedy,” a reference to Lee Oswald, who was responsible for the assassination of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy in the attack in Dallas, Texas, in 1963. Crooks had also researched the weather conditions in preparation for Trump’s rally. The FBI has denied the conspiracy theory that a second shooter was present on the day of the attack. Crooks used an external air conditioning unit as a base to climb onto the roof of a building from which he then fired the shots. Federal agents have also ruled out that the boy could be linked to foreign entities interested in killing Trump. The FBI also showed two photos: one shows the weapon used in the attack, a semi-automatic war rifle of the Ar-15 model, the one sadly famous for having been used in mass killings over the last fifteen years. Another shows the trunk of Crooks’ car, found not far from the scene of the attack. Inside were two crude explosive devices. The detonator was not activated.