The gunman who shot Donald Trump at a crossroads rally in Pennsylvania flew over the scene with a drone before Trump took the stage, according to US network Sky and NBC News.
The DJI-made camera drone allowed shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, to get an aerial view that may have helped him plan his attack, an NBC source familiar with the matter said.
Trump was shot in the ear in the assassination attempt and one bystander was killed, while two others were injured. Crooks was murdered through the Secret Service.
The suggestion of aerial surveillance adds to complaints about the security that allowed Crooks to nearly kill the former president.
It’s not unusual for the Secret Service to ban drones in spaces it protects, but it’s unclear if that happened at Butler’s rally last Saturday.
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A drone and drone device were recovered from Crooks’ vehicle.
It’s unclear exactly how investigators learned of the drone’s flight, however, drones leave electronic lines in their flight paths, and DJI would have possibly kept a record of the flight.
On Friday, investigators discovered Crooks’ phone history, which revealed searches involving a mass teenage shooter in Michigan, according to two law enforcement sources.
Sources said his phone contained reports related to the Oxford high school shooting and gunman Ethan Crumbley, who was 15 when he shot and killed four students and wounded several others in suburban Detroit in 2021.
He sentenced him to life in prison.
He had also researched depressive disorders and recorded on his phone footage of the demonstration in Butler, Pennsylvania, where he shot and killed Mr. Trump.
Crooks’ former classmates at Bethel High School said he was quiet with a small group of friends.