From a rooftop, Trump was shot in the ear during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania. The shooter, 22-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, fired multiple shots.
The Scot met the former president, but also three men in the audience. Two of them were seriously injured and one man died.
Shortly afterwards, the 22-year-old died, shot by the Secret Service.
Member of shooting club
The weapon, an AR-15 rifle, is believed to be owned by the shooter’s father. Pictures show that during the shooting he was wearing a t-shirt from Demolition Ranch – one of the world’s largest YouTube channels about firearms and gun safety, which sells clothes, among other things.
Crooks, 22, had a membership in a local shooting club, the Clairton Sportsmen’s Club, for at least a year.
Found suspected bomb
On Sunday, police cordoned off the area around Crook’s home in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania. The home is just over an hour’s drive away from where the shooting took place.
According to the local police, explosives were found in the man’s car later in the day, Wall Street Jorunal reports.
Access to telephone
The FBI has submitted a request to the court to break into the shooter’s phone.
Along with the weapon and other evidence, the phone is now being sent to the FBI lab in Quantico, Virginia “for processing and exploitation.”
“We are working hard to determine the sequence of events related to the subject and his movements in the hours, days and weeks leading up to the shooting,” Kevin Rojek, an FBI agent, said Sunday while emphasizing that “we are still very early in this investigation.”
Investigators have found no threatening comments on social media accounts or ideological positions that could help explain what prompted him to target Trump, according to the New York Times.
FBI agent Kevin Rojek believes that Crooks acted alone and states that there are no indications that he had mental health problems. They are investigating the act as potential chemical terrorism.