By Luis De Jesus
20 Jul 2024, 00:00 AM EDT
The man who tried to assassinate former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump used a drone to obtain aerial images of the rally grounds before the event began on Saturday, it was reported on Friday. The Wall Street Journal.
He Journalciting law enforcement officials briefed on the matter, said attacker Thomas Crooks programmed the drone’s route over the site of the event in Butler, Pennsylvania, hours earlier. The route suggests Crooks flew the drone more than once.
The information reveals important security flaws in the organization of the political meeting, Efe reported. It adds to other details of the attack that have been leaked while the FBI leads the main investigation into the two major unknowns of the attack: what motivated Crooks to shoot Trump and how he did it.
At a meeting between FBI and Secret Service officials and lawmakers on Wednesday, details emerged about the attacker’s search history on his devices, which included Trump and President Joe Biden, as well as his upcoming public appearances, among other details.
According to CNN, investigators also found a photo on Crooks’ phone of Ethan Crumbley, the underage shooter in a Michigan school shooting in 2021, and information about his parents, who were convicted of involuntary manslaughter.
On the day of the attack, ABC reported, Secret Service snipers spotted Crooks on the roof of the building from which he fired 20 minutes before the attack. Security forces had identified him as a person of interest an hour earlier and even observed him using a rangefinder.
Crooks, 20, was shot dead by snipers seconds after firing at Trump as he spoke on stage. The former president escaped unharmed with only a wound to his right ear, while one member of the audience died and two others were seriously injured.
Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle is scheduled to testify before a U.S. congressional committee on Monday.
Keep reading:
• Donald Trump accepts Republican presidential nomination: “The division in our society must be healed”
• Trump leads Biden nationally and in key states: poll
• Video leaked of Trump describing what he felt during the shooting that almost killed him