Former president Donald Trump will sit for a victim interview with the FBI, in cooperation with the investigation into the assassination attempt on his life, the bureau said on Monday.
It will be “a standard victim interview we do for any other victim of crime,” said Kevin Rojek, the FBI special agent in charge of the Pittsburgh field office. “We want to get his perspective on what he observed.”
Former firefighter Corey Comperatore was killed and two rally-goers, James Copenhaver and David Dutch, were critically wounded by gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, at Trump’s campaign rally in Butler, Pa., on July 13. Trump was “struck by a bullet, whether whole or fragmented into smaller pieces,” in the ear, Rojek confirmed.
The investigation has uncovered details about Crooks’s planning process, though it has not yet revealed his motivation. FBI officers have profiled Crooks as a reclusive loner who in the days leading up to his assassination attempt made internet searches relating to mass shootings, power plants, explosive devices, and past attempted assassinations.
Crooks’s “extremely cooperative” parents have said they had no knowledge of their sons’ motive or plans. The gunman was “highly intelligent, attended college and maintained steady employment,” and it is believed that he made “significant efforts to conceal his activities,” Rojek said.
The shooter likely climbed up HVAC equipment and crossed multiple rooftops before firing eight shots in Trump’s direction. Authorities had identified Crooks as a suspicious person more than one hour before the shooting.
The FBI has conducted hundreds of interviews and sifted through thousands of tips since July 13, but still has not been able to determine a motive, the FBI said on Monday.