The depressed angry white Republican with a gun saw Donald Trump’s political rally as a “target of opportunity” that would provide him a worldwide stage, said the FBI agent investigating the July assassination attempt against one of the presidential candidates, the Associated Press reports.
Kevin Rojek, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Pittsburgh field office, said investigators have conducted more than one thousand interviews and reviewed electronic devices used by the shooter. Rojek says the shooter researched how to construct explosives over a five-year period, and he tracked Trump, President Joe Biden in a “sustained, detailed effort to plan an attack on some event, meaning he looked at any number of events or targets.”
When Trump announced the July 13th event at the nearby farm show grounds, Rojek said the shooter became hyperfocused on the event and the location, doing extensive research including finding out how the fairgrounds would be laid out and where the stage would be located.