Trump assassination bid: Crooks target-practiced at shooting range, bought ladder. Wanted to blow up car?
Thomas Matthew Crooks
Trump assassination bid: Various reports are emerging on the planning and preparation done by Thomas Matthew Crooks before he went on the rooftop of a rally addressed by Donald Trump in Pennsylvania and pumped bullets at him in a failed assassination attempt on Saturday (Jul13).
According to a report in CNN, Crooks practised firing at a shooting range on Friday, a day before the shooting. Earlier reports had said that he was rejected by a shooting club as he was not a good shot, in his younger days.
Citing an unnamed official, CNN said that on the day of the shooting, he bought a ladder from a Home Depot store. The ladder was eventually used to climb the rooftop of the building from where he took aim at Trump.
On the first half of last Saturday, he also bought 50 rounds of ammunition from a gun store.
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He was driving a Hyundai Sonata car and travelled for an hour to the Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Crook planned to blow up his car?
According to investigators cited in the CNN report, Crooks had planted an improvised explosive device. After parking the car near the rally site, he took the transmitter for the IED with him. This indicates that, besides shooting Trump, he intended to carry out an explosion of his car to create panic and mayhem. It may have also been a planned distraction tactic. Mercifully, no explosion was carried out eventually.
Motive yet to be known
It is puzzling for the investigators that a clear motive or ideological cause is yet to be identified for Crooks' actions.
Watch: Woman spotted with suspicious behaviour behind Trump during gun firing goes viral
They have broken into his phone and computer and interviewed several of his acquaintances and family members but could not yet establish a concrete reason.
His computer search history showed an interest in coding, but nothing to suggest extreme viewpoints.
The rifle used in the shooting was legally purchased by his father Matthew Crooks, who along with his son was a member of a nearby shooting club which they used to frequent.
(With inputs from agencies)