A drone has been found to have played a critical role for the would-be assassin of former President Donald Trump.
Investigators working to unravel the circumstances surrounding the July 13 shooting discovered the drone was used to collect aerial footage of Pennsylvania’s Butler Farm Show grounds, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday.
Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, flew the drone over the area where Trump’s rally was set to take place later in the day before ultimately climbing a nearby roof and firing a rifle, hitting the former president, killing one rallygoer and injuring others.
Crooks secured aerial footage of the grounds by sending the drone on a predetermined path above the area, the Journal reported.
Overhead videos would have given Crooks a big advantage in seeing the layout of the rally and any potential firing positions. Additionally, any early security work may have been visible from the drone, giving Crooks an idea of strong and weak points in the detail.
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Officials told the Journal the drone was used to scout the location more than once.
The New York Times reported the drone’s discovery in Crooks’ vehicle was hampered by the presence of explosives in the Hyundai Sonata.
A transmitter was found next to Crooks’ body shortly after he was killed by sniper fire from a Secret Service agent. The device is suspected to be linked to the explosives stored in his car, possibly as some sort of distraction or secondary attack.
The drone now sits in an FBI lab, the Times reported, where it is being analyzed alongside Crooks’ phone and other electronic devices. Authorities have yet to establish a motive for the shooting but hope that this analysis may yield some clues to Crooks’ methods.
Will Crooks’ motive be discovered?
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NBC reported that the drone, flown hours before the rally, was a model made by DJI, a technology company based in Shenzhen, China.
The new details add another layer to the shooting that shocked the American public and showed serious failings in Trump’s assigned security.
Questions remain about the motive and disposition of the shooter.
Crooks was found to have multiple secure foreign accounts at the time of the shooting, according to U.S. Rep. Mike Waltz, a Florida Republican.
The lawmaker, recounting an FBI briefing to Fox News’ Jesse Watters on Thursday, said Crooks had “three encrypted accounts overseas,” and mentioned the existence of an Iranian plot targeting the same rally.
Also under examination is law enforcement and Secret Service agents’ reaction to the threat.
Footage from the day of the shooting shows rallygoers attempting to alert police to Crooks’ presence, but nothing was done to stop him until shots rang out.
Authorities were even told the suspect was armed with a gun, to no avail.
The Secret Service has found itself under investigation for failings seen during the shooting shortly after the attack. The Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general announced the opening of the investigation Wednesday but gave no timeframe for the probe.
As more details of the shooting are pieced together in the coming weeks, we may soon understand what drove Crooks to pull the trigger that day — and how a cascade of security failures allowed him to do so.
