Mobile tracking data linked to the home and work addresses of the gunman who attempted to assassinate former President Donald Trump show devices that also visited Washington, D.C., Plymouth, Mass., and a Pennsylvania gun shop where the shooter bought ammunition.
The Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project obtained mobile ad tracking data in order to analyze the location data of at least nine devices that regularly visited would-be Trump assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks’ home and work in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, within the past year.
Analysis of the mobile ad location data, according to the Oversight Project, shows that someone who regularly visited both Crooks’ home and place of work at a local nursing home also visited the Gallery Place shopping center in Washington, D.C., on June 26, 2023.
The tracked device shows location data just a block away from the U.S. Secret Service headquarters building, and in the vicinity of an FBI office building, according to the Oversight Project data.
Another device that the organization states is “linked to Crooks” traveled to Plymouth, Mass., in early March of this year, via a flight from Pittsburgh, Penn., to Logan Airport in Boston.
Another device that was linked to the local nursing home where the 20-year-old Crooks worked as a dietary aide at the time of the shooting shows travel data from Bethel Park to Butler, Penn., on July 4 and 8 — the location of the Trump rally where the assassination attempt would take place just a week later on July 13.
That device stopped all location tracking activity on July 12, according to the Oversight Project.
Another device linked to crooks visited Allegheny Arms & Gun Works on August 30, 2023.
The Bethel Park gun shop is where the gunman purchased 50 rounds on ammunition on the day of the shooting, just hours before the former president’s rally in Butler on July 13, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has reported.
Just a week before the shooting, Crooks reportedly searched online for information on a previous mass shooter, the date of the Democratic National Convention, and other searches for Trump, President Joe Biden and other political figures.
The 20-year-old apparently had no social media presence or online footprint before carrying out the attack, nor did he post a manifesto or other political writings indicating any ideological motivation behind the shooting, as previous mass shooters have done.
Crooks’ motive for the assassination attempt is still unknown as the FBI continues to investigate the shooting.
