Trump Assassination Attempt: FBI Shows Photos of Shooter’s Gun, Explosives
Dude: An account linked to the shooter has been researching Trump’s “campaign schedule and upcoming appearances in Pennsylvania” since September 2023!
The FBI released more details about Thomas Crooks, the man who shot Donald Trump, killed Corey Comperatore, and injured James Copenhaver, 74, and David Dutch, 57.
The agency showed pictures of the shooter’s firearm and explosives in his car trunk.
The last picture is the AC unit the shooter used to access the roof.
But still, no motive, even though the agency said a search of the shooter’s “online search history, as well as his specific online activity, has provided us valuable insight into his mindset.”
“At this time, the FBI has not identified a motive nor any co-conspirators or associates of Crooks with advance knowledge of the attack,” said Robert Wells, executive assistant director of the FBI’s National Security Branch. “And I want to be clear: We have not seen any indication to suggest Crooks was directed by a foreign entity to conduct the attack. As always, we will continue to follow all logical investigative steps in this ongoing investigation and have not ruled anything out at this time.”
Kevin Rojek, the special agent in charge of the FBI Pittsburgh Field Office, said an account linked to the shooter has been researching Trump’s “campaign schedule and upcoming appearances in Pennsylvania” since September 2023.
Yes. September 2023.
The shooter added Joe Biden to the search in April 2024.
In early July, the shooter searched:
Specifically on July 4, 2024, the subject searched for details of the former president’s campaign event in Butler.
On July 6, the subject registered to attend the rally, and that same day, he specifically searched for:
- “how far was Oswald from Kennedy,”
- ”where will Trump speak from at Butler Farm Show,”
- ”Butler Farm Show podium,” and
- “Butler Farm Show photos.”
On July 8, the subject searched “AGR International,” on July 9 he searched “ballistic calculator,” and on July 10 he searched “weather in Butler.”
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“said Robert Wells, executive assistant director of the FBI’s National Security Branch. “And I want to be clear: We have not seen any indication to suggest Crooks was directed by a foreign entity to conduct the attack”
Cause you won’t, it was internal, like the FBI/ CIA
What a joke
What a joke
Yes it is
It seems telling that they said “foreign”, not “foreign or domestic”.
Another lone wolf who’s motives will probably never be known.
Thanks, FBI.
there’re no lone wolves
Well it’s nice to know we spend several billion dollars a year for this incompetence
And the FIB got a nice new building in which to practice their weaponized “investigations.”
At that price, one knows it is high-grade incompetence.
Were I ComInCh, I’d make them stay in their old headquarters.
2 issues here, probably minor, but nothing is minor in this case with these players.
1. The separated upper appears to be too big to fit in that bag without something protruding. Either end of an AR upper is easily recognizable.
2. The front breakdown pin is missing from this rifle. It’s excusable because they had to break it down to make the illustration but the rear breakdown pin is in place. Habit is to put the front pin in first since it’s what allows more intuitive reassembly. I cannot understand why the rear pin would have been put back but not the front.
Again, I shouldn’t be suspicious but that’s on the FBI not on me.
I see a takedown pin in both holes in both pictures.
Both pins are there… both are captured to prevent loss. Glare makes the front one hard to see. I’ve seen that optic before but can’t place it right now… either reflex or holographic. Anyway, it’s more of a CQB or “Three gun” setup rather than precision sight…for which we are most grateful. The Left will focus on the adjustable stock … of course… which in this case is laughable for hiding that rifle. We can also be grateful he got caught up in the mystic of the AR platform. Any run of the mill scoped “deer rifle” would have been far more dangerous.
I noticed the front pin shortly after I posted; it was hard to see with the reflection and a white background, As for the accuracy if the platform vs a “hunting (bolt action) rifle,” at that distance the miss was 100% operator error; at 16 years old my daughter could spend an hour with my AR platform carbine, Aimpoint PRO unmagnified, and shoot out the x and 10 rings without a miss at 100-200 yards. The platform is very accurate to 400 yards and effective further. The ergonomics and extremely light recoil instill confidence. I have hunted varmint at long distances with a -1moa bolt rifle and mid-sized game with various bolt, lever and AR platforms. The operator, not the machine failed.
The first shot is often the only shot…. and the best. I’ve shot High Power with iron sights AR platform under time constraints, Accuracy is not the issue. Fixed or LPVO provides a better sight picture in this circumstance. True.. operator error was there but I posit what would happen with a standard hunting rig. Time was of the essence.
No one can fire any gun accurately at a target that is moving unpredictably. If Trump had not moved at just the right moment, the first shot would have scattered brains all over the platform.
at that distance the miss was 100% operator error
It was 100% that Trump moved just so (turned his head and leaned on the podium). If Trump’s head had not moved, we’d be voting for someone else in November.
Now, you can call it “operator error” but not many people are used to shooting at something that will actually move unpredictably.
I’m an atheist, but it was a damn miracle.
On live tv.
And nobody in the media industrial complex wants to talk about it.
It is a Holosun AEMS.
Aren’t three-gunners all using LPVOs with offset micro red dots these days? I’m one of the few around here who uses an Aimpoint + magnifier.
Good catch. The LPVO are soooo heavy these days. I’ve been playing with the Primary Arms Micro with Sig Juliet magnifier….lighter and really the variable is rarely fully used. IOR HAD A 1X_4X scope ..one or other.
With respect to #1, there were a number of contemporeanous eyewitness accounts of seeing a man openly carrying a long gun some time before the shooting began. One witness told the BBC that he saw a man walk out of the adjacent field carrying a ‘long gun.’ The reporter asked, ‘Are you certain?’ And the witness said he was an Army vet and it looked like an AR-variant to him. Just last week, video surfaced of Cooks carrying a long gun while he was walking on the ground near the building he would eventually scale. I’m not sure he ever had the weapon disassembled and stowed in the bag. It’s possible, I guess. But, there’s some evidence available that he didn’t.
With respect to the takedown/pivot pins, I see both still captive in the lower receiver, as they normally are in quite a few AR variants.
OK, as a gun guy, I have to ask why the stock in the assembled photo appears to be broken* and it’s not in the disassembled photo?
(* Based on the second photo, where the stock appears to be a standard sliding adjustable stock, and the fact I’ve never seen an adjustable stock that pivots like that.)
Also, that second picture shows a backpack that will not adequately hide the disassembled rifle. It will either be shaped weirdly around the length of that upper, or something will poke out slightly. That, again, makes the “Oh, he hid it in a backpack” a bit damning as far as the LEOs/USSS that didn’t see something amiss. At least, given the almost cavity search required of people who actually get inspected.
It’s broken in both photos. In the breakdown photo, an inner tube (sorry, I am not yet up to speed on AR15 “naming of parts”) is slid back towards the butt end, hiding the broken gap.
Mr. Bullet took out a chunk of the stock before saying hello to Mr. Face.
“Buffer tube.” And it’s not the tube that’s been slid back in the “intact”-looking photo (the proximal end of the buffer tube is fixed/staked to the lower with a castle nut and does not move relative to the lower), it’s the butt stock that’s been slid forward on buffer tube, allowing the tube to show through the defect in the stock.
OK, it looks like a simple telescoping collapsible buttstock, not really an integral AR15 part at all. It is extended in one photo and collapsed in the other.
When the stock is collapsed the buffer tube is filling the missing portion. With it fully open you see a large hole between the cheek rest and the shoulder plate. I’d have to assume that is where the bullet that hit him in the head ended up. Through the face/neck and into the buttstock
And that’s what I was thinking, but the stock didn’t seem that short in the one pic. Thanks for that.
My understanding is that the rifle was hit by a bullet from the local police officer who was the first to return fire.
It’s a Mag Pul. Oh, and with the optics set up the shooter cannot get a solid weld.
I trained at Thunder Ranch a few years ago. I was making easy hits at 200 yards with a red dot sight from (highly) unusual shooting positions (e.g. from inside a phone booth, jammed between two wood posts, and a simulated rooftop – that was above the steepness approved by the USSS). I wear glasses and my eyesight still isn’t great. I can’t use an AR’s regular peep and post-type sight. (Although I do have a set of BUIS on the gun. My other AR has a 1-4x scope, and the backup is a red dot.) I swear, during BRM (basic rifle marksmanship) in basic training (1974) I actually couldn’t see half the targets. I have no idea how I qualified!
But my point is that stock weld isn’t that important because a red dot doesn’t require the shooter to line up two different iron sights. You put the dot on the target. If you don’t upset the gun when you pull the bang switch, you’ll hit the target. The cheek weld was specifically taught in BRM to get a consistent sight picture, something not needed with a red dot.
There was some reporting a week or so ago that the counter-sniper struck the weapon at least once. Considering the proximate of that buttstock to the face while in the prone position, that makes some sense. But, I haven’t seen that report confirmed by the FBI, yet.
Also, those explosives look … questionable. Any information on their construction, or follow-ups on their detonation method, and whether or not they would have functioned?
Wray said in his testimony to Congress that they were ‘relatively crude’ but ‘dangerous’ and a ‘major threat.’ No one really pressed him more. But, he seemed like he was implying, at least, that they were functional. He said they that were rigged for ‘remote detonation’ and Crooks had the detonator with him on the roof but did not attempt to trigger it…maybe because his face was missing. They found another explosive device in his home. He didn’t elaborate at all on that device.
That’s almost the exact same thing they said about the Jan 6 pipe bombs, which was also pretty much the last thing they ever said about them. No interest in pipe bombs on Jan 6 … but Granny invited into the Capitol by Capitol Police and lingering around for a few minutes … PRISON!!!!
@GWB the stock is broken in both photos, it’s just fully collapsed in the disassembled photo, so the receiver extension is showing through the stock and making it look like the stock isn’t damaged. In the picture where the gun is assembled the stock is extended so it shows the damage more clearly.
I don’t want to hear the FBI speculate about what those pea-brains want to claim was the shooter’s motive. I don’t care what the FBI has to say about any of it, since they are completely and utterly untrustworthy propaganda for their commie overlords. The FBI are less than useless these days (ever since Barky perverted them and the rest of the Executive agencies and groups.
Frankly, as with the dems, whatever the FBI says it’s always a safe bet that the truth is the opposite.
his motives are known
he was a lefty who hated trump
We should believe the FBI ….. why, exactly?
I’d like to hear from someone that knew him. He had to have interacted socially at some point in the past 20 years.
“I want to stress that It is not standard procedure or practice for the FBI or any law enforcement agency to request that the coroner or medical examiner maintain indefinite custody of a deceased subject’s body once the investigative purposes of our agency and our partner agencies are completed.”
“Indefinite custody”
So, a Lenin styled Mausoleum for Crooks is out?
“Standard practices”
Like rescuing a kitten from the old oak tree?
The Cheka saying they don’t know his motivation means they know exactly what it is, and it may hurt the electoral chances of Democrats.
FBI: Since the shooting, we’ve discovered all this stuff about Crooks’ online presence.
Reality: Some three-letter agency noticed Crooks’ online presence before the shooting, and thought if they left Trump vulnerable, the local whacko might take a shot at him.
Not a great plan (as I’ve mentioned here before), but slightly better than setting the stage for an unknown actor (who might not exist).
DPMS AR-15, Holosun red dot, offset iron sights, a hand stop and magpul stock. It’s what I’d expect to see from a first time AR-owner with a limited budget who cruises gun sites to see how they should trick out their rifle.
That implies it’s not how someone in the know would do it. What is wrong with that arrangement? (Outside of the red dot might not be the best choice for the shot he was planning.)
To GWB,
There is nothing wrong the shooters set up.
While it is an entry level AR and red dot, they are fine for 100 yard shots .
If you want an AR and sights that are combat proven so the gun snobs wont sneer at you, you could buy a Daniel Defense carbine and Leupold delta point red dot.
Twice the price and possibly more robust for field use.
Maybe slightly more accurate.
Functions exactly while shooting prone from a rooftop.