The gunman who targeted Donald Trump at a campaign rally earlier this month researched the assassination of John F Kennedy in the days before the shooting, FBI Director Christopher Wray has said.
Mr Wray testified on Wednesday before the House Judiciary Committee about the 13 July shooting at the Butler, Pennsylvania, campaign.
A bullet grazed Trump’s right ear and the attack left one rally audience member dead and two others badly wounded.
The gunman also used a firearm with a “collapsible stock”, likely making it easier to conceal, Mr Wray said.
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In his opening remarks, the FBI director called the attempted assassination of Trump “an attack on our democracy and our democratic process”.
“We will not and do not tolerate political violence of any kind, especially a despicable account of this magnitude,” he told lawmakers.
Mr Wray said that on 6 July – a week before the shooting – the gunman searched “how far away was Oswald from Kennedy” online and registered for the Trump rally.
Lee Harvey Oswald shot and killed President Kennedy in 1963.
The FBI head said on Wednesday that the agency still does not have a motive for the assassination attempt but the gunman appears to have become “very focused” on Trump a week before the shooting.
Investigators also found the gunman had conducted searches for news articles about other public figures.
Mr Wray said the shooter fired at least eight shots. Officials recovered eight cartridges on the roof where the gunman, identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, was located.
Crooks was killed by a counter sniper during the incident.
The AR-style rifle used in the shooting had a collapsible stock, which can make a weapon shorter and easier to transport.
The first people to see the gunman with a rifle did so when he was already on the roof from where he fired, Mr Wray said.
The FBI director also confirmed that the gunman flew a drone over the rally about two hours before the shooting. (BBC).
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