Shooter made ‘detailed effort’ to attack major event before deciding to target Donald Tump at a Pennsylvania rally, FBI says.

The gunman who tried to kill former United States President Donald Trump had mounted a “sustained, detailed effort” to attack a major gathering of some sort before deciding to target the Republican presidential candidate at a Pennsylvania rally in July, FBI officials say.

FBI officials said Thomas Crooks, 20, searched more than 60 times for information about Trump and his then-rival, Democratic President Joe Biden, before registering for the Trump rally in early July.

“We saw … a sustained, detailed effort to plan an attack on some events, meaning he looked at any number of events or targets,” Kevin Rojek, the FBI’s top official in western Pennsylvania, said in a telephone briefing to reporters on Wednesday.

Rojek said Crooks became “hyper-focused” on the Trump rally when it was announced “and looked at it as a target of opportunity”.

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