Failed Trump assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks appears to have purchased the ladder he used to scale the building and 50 rounds of ammunition on the morning of the Butler, Pennsylvania, rally.
According to a report from CNN citing law enforcement officials, Crooks bought the ladder from Home Depot on the day he tried to assassinate Trump from the roof of a nearby building.
If this report is accurate and to be believed, Crooks may have made it past law enforcement and the Secret Service carrying a very tall ladder and used it to climb the building unnoticed.
CNN reports:
On Friday, he went to a shooting range where he was a member, and practiced firing, a law enforcement official told CNN. The next morning, Crooks went to a Home Depot, where he bought a five-foot ladder, and a gun store, where he purchased 50 rounds of ammunition, the official said.
Then, Crooks drove his Hyundai Sonata about an hour north, joining thousands of people from around the region who flocked to Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. He parked the car outside the rally, with an improvised explosive device hidden in the trunk that was wired to a transmitter he carried, the official said. Then, investigators believe, he used his newly-bought ladder to scale a nearby building, and opened fire on the former president.
The report noted, “It’s not clear whether Crooks used the ammunition or the ladder that he bought on Saturday during his attack later that day.” However, a ladder was prominently propped up against the building where Crooks would shoot from.
Crooks also had a detonator on his person and explosives attached to a receiver in his vehicle’s trunk.
Oddly, the report says that no motives have been found for the shooting and that his online history does not reveal a “political or ideological impetus for the shooting.” His activities online suggest an interest in coding and gaming.
There is no evidence of him searching online for how to create an explosive device, the report claims.
The gun that Crooks used was legally purchased and owned by his father.
The report concluded, “The shooter’s parents, who have been cooperating with law enforcement since the shooting, have told investigators that Crooks did not appear to have friends and did not appear to have any political leanings, a law enforcement official told CNN. But they didn’t seem to know much about what was going on in his life recently, law enforcement sources said.”
