Deceased gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks’s motivation for attempting to assassinate former president Donald Trump last month remains a mystery to the FBI, despite the agency conducting nearly 1,000 interviews for its ongoing investigation into Crooks’s attack.
FBI special agent Kevin Rojek gave an update Wednesday on the investigation’s findings up to this point, including Crooks’s searches for Trump and President Joe Biden, his 2024 presidential rival at the time, and the conventions for both major parties.
“He looked at any number of events or targets,” he told the press. “[When] the Trump rally was announced early in July, he became hyper-focused on that specific event and looked at it as a target opportunity.”
The FBI has interviewed nearly 1,000 people and conducted an extensive analysis of Crooks’s searches from 2019–24 during its investigation. Crooks’s family members have cooperated extensively and remain in contact with the FBI. Trump was among the people the FBI interviewed, a routine victim interview that allowed agents to answer Trump’s questions about what transpired.
“Extensive analysis of the subject’s online search history, as well as his specific online activity, has provided us valuable insight into his mindset, but not a definitive motive,” Rojek said in prepared remarks.
From April to July 2024, Crooks searched for Trump and Biden campaign events, specifically those scheduled to take place in western Pennsylvania. In the 30 days leading up to the attack, Crooks conducted over 60 searches related to Biden and Trump.
He carried out the attack on Trump last month at the former president’s campaign rally in Butler, Pa., a town close to the Pittsburgh-area suburb where Crooks lived.
Crooks, 20, managed to climb up the roof of an American Glass Research (AGR) building adjacent to the Trump rally and fire eight shots into the crowd, wounding Trump’s right ear. Former fire chief Corey Comperatore was killed, and two others were wounded.
A Secret Service sniper killed Crooks seconds after he began firing the shots. Afterward, law enforcement discovered explosives in his car made from components legally available to purchase online. Beginning in September 2019, Crooks searched multiple times about learning to make explosives and for materials the FBI said are consistent with making such devices.
The attempted assassination of Trump is one of the biggest security failures in American history and remains the subject of multiple ongoing investigations. The FBI’s investigation is focused on Crooks himself, not the law enforcement mistakes leading up to the shooting. Crooks did not have any co-conspirators and is believed to have been a loner.
Crooks searched for information about Trump’s campaign rally on July 4, nine days before it took place, and registered for the event on July 6, the same day he searched for information about the Butler Farm Show, the rally’s venue.
FBI director Christopher Wray previously disclosed Crooks’s search about the assassination of sitting president John F. Kennedy in 1963 when he testified last month about the FBI’s investigation. Crooks searched “how far was Oswald from Kennedy” on the same day he registered for the Trump rally. On July 8th, Crooks looked up the AGR building, and in the following days, he searched for additional terms related to the Trump event.
Moreover, the FBI provided an updated timeline of Crooks’s activity at the Trump rally prior to the shooting, adding new details to information disclosed by lawmakers and top brass at the FBI and Secret Service.
At 4:26 P.M., Crooks was in the vicinity of the AGR building complex, walking past vendors roughly a half-mile away from the building. Senator Chuck Grassley’s (R., Iowa) previously claimed that texts from local law enforcement indicated Crooks was spotted next to the AGR complex at 4:26, a claim contradicted by the FBI’s findings.
Crooks climbed up the AGR building at 6:05 P.M. and spent six minutes on the roof. At 6:11 P.M., Crooks fired at Trump and was killed.
The FBI believes it is likely that Crooks managed to break down his rifle and put it into his backpack to evade law enforcement detection, the bureau said in a caption of a picture showing how he might have done so. The FBI released photos of Crooks’s weaponry in tandem with the press update.