Trump Shooter Searched for Locations Where Ex-President and Joe Biden Were to Appear, NY Times Reports

The 20-year-old man who nearly assassinated Donald Trump searched for public appearances that the former president and President Joe Biden were to make, according to a New York Times report published on Wednesday night.

At a Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on Saturday, Thomas Matthew Crooks shot Trump in the ear, killed one attendee, and wounded two others before before killed by Secret Service agents. The shooting occurred about 50 miles from Crooks’ house.

The Times reported that local police officers spotted a man who turned out to be Crooks acting strangely before Trump took the stage. They notified the Secret Service.

“Then they lost track of him,” the report said. “Twenty minutes before violence erupted, a sniper, from a distance, spotted Mr. Crooks again and took his picture.”

The report went on to say at least two local officers were tasked with finding Crooks. Despite the concern, the Secret Service allowed Trump to take the stage anyway.

The Times added that Crooks, who was a registered Republican and once donated $15 on a Democratic fundraising platform, searched for images of high-profile government officials, in addition to Trump:

But in the aftermath, when the F.B.I. was able to finally access Mr. Crooks’s cellphones and other electronic devices, agents could see that he had searched for images of Mr. Trump as well as President Biden, Attorney General Merrick B. Garland and even F.B.I. Director Christopher A. Wray.

Mr. Crooks also had at typed in “major depressive disorder” and searched for dates and places for appearances for both Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump.

One of Mr. Trump’s planned appearances happened to be about 50 miles from Mr. Crooks’s house in Bethel Park, Pa.

Crooks went to a shooting range the day before the attempted assassination, according to the FBI. He purchased a ladder and 50 rounds of ammunition the next day, just hours before the shooting.