On Sunday, FBI officials announced that they found a “rudimentary” explosive device in the car of Thomas Matthew Crooks, the 20-year-old gunman who attempted to assassinate former President Donald J. Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania.
According to F.B.I. officials on Sunday, the 20-year-old gunman who attempted to kill former President Donald J. Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania appears to have acted alone. However, they are still unsure of his motivations and political views and have not yet been able to find any evidence on his cellphone.
According to a person with knowledge of the inquiry, agents discovered what they called a “rudimentary” explosive device in the gunman’s car and maybe explosives at his house as well reports The New York Times.
Officials from the FBI verified that the semiautomatic rifle used in the shooting was lawfully acquired by the father of the attacker. However, they claimed it was unclear if the son had taken the firearm without authorization or if the father had given it to him.
According to Pittsburgh’s special agent in charge of the FBI, Kevin Rojek, the family is assisting with the investigation.
Numerous federal investigators worked to ascertain why the gunman, Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, scaled a nearby building and fired shots on Saturday night, injuring President Trump, killing a man who was attending the rally with his family, and critically injuring two more people before being killed by a Secret Service sniper.
According to F.B.I. personnel, Mr. Crooks had no criminal or mental health background.
It doesn’t seem like he left behind any writing that would readily clarify his intentions or offer hints about any relationships or influences from outside the company, according to a senior law enforcement official.
Documents indicate that Mr. Crooks was a Republican voter when he made his $15 donation to a Democratic organization. However, not much more is known about Mr. Crooks, a long-haired, glasses-wearing employee of a nursing home who was once thought to be smart but modest by his students.
An adjacent community college awarded him a degree in engineering. In addition to learning how to code, he enjoyed playing video games and chess. An examination of his internet activity by authorities revealed that, in contrast to most other members of his generation, he appeared to have very little online presence, leaving no obvious trail of social media posts or public remarks.
The incident is being looked into as a possible assassination attempt as well as an instance of domestic terrorism, officials said.
A senior U.S. law enforcement official issued a warning, saying that although the bureau and investigators with the Justice Department’s national security division have not found any evidence linking the shooting to any foreign forces or part of a larger plot, they were still in “uncharted territory” and would not rule out any possibilities until they had cleaned Mr. Crooks’s devices and spoken with witnesses.
In a Sunday conference call with reporters, Mr. Rojek stated, “At this time, the information that we have indicates that the shooter acted alone and that there are currently no public safety concerns.”
“We have not identified an ideology associated with the subject, but I want to remind everyone that we’re still very early in this investigation,” he added.
Due to the political significance of the investigation, Attorney General Merrick B. Garland and Director of the FBI Christopher A. Wray announced on Sunday that they intended to be open and prompt in providing updated information about it. They also planned to refute any misinformation that was already circulating on social media, including accounts that claimed to be fake and to be from Mr. Crooks.
“I want to reiterate that the violence that we saw yesterday is an attack on our democracy itself,” Mr. Garland said, echoing language he has used to describe the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob.
“As Americans we must have no tolerance for it,” he added. “This must stop.”
“Leave no stone unturned,” Mr. Wray pledged his investigators would do.
After years of accusations against the Justice Department by Mr. Trump and his followers, Mr. Garland and Mr. Wray are now in charge of the probe.
Leading the probe are Mr. Garland and Mr. Wray. This comes at a time when federal prosecutors are pursuing two criminal investigations against the former president and after years of accusations from Mr. Trump and his allies that the Justice Department and the bureau are highly biased against him.
Investigators were hopeful that information about Mr. Crooks’s connections, opinions, and motivations may be found on his cellphone. After failing to gain access to the gadget, F.B.I. agents in Pennsylvania shipped it to the lab of the bureau in Quantico, Virginia, to swiftly bypass its password protection, according to Mr. Rojek.
He claimed that although they had limited access to some of his texts, they didn’t reveal anything about his ideas or objectives. Additionally, the gun and the explosive ingredients were sent to Quantico for analysis.
According to the F.B.I., dozens of federal investigators are working quickly to piece together a more complete picture of a young man who, in addition to having little social media presence, hid explosive devices in his car and didn’t have any identification on him when the shooting occurred.
The FBI is concentrating on following Mr. Crooks’s actions in the hours, days, and weeks leading up to the shooting. The agency has received 2,000 tips in this case. A team has been assigned to handle the tangible evidence, while technology experts are analyzing digital devices, bullet casings, fingerprints, and DNA evidence.
In an all-hands dragnet involving numerous federal and local law enforcement agencies, prosecutors from three U.S. attorneys’ offices in Pennsylvania and dozens of agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives served warrants and questioned witnesses.
Explore exclusive GGI coverage of Donald Trump’s assassination attempt.
