After investigating Trump shooting, bombers leave message: ‘July 13th will be my first’

JAKARTA – An investigation team working on the motive for the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump has found a message posted on the gaming platform Steam that they believe was written by the suspect.

The author said: “July 13 will be my first show, look at the progress,” according to three police sources briefed on the investigation.

Investigators also discovered internet searches for Trump and President Joe Biden on the phone belonging to Thomas Matthew Crooks, sources familiar with the investigation told ABC News.

Crooks (20) is known to have researched the date of Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, and the date of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, the source said.

The suspect’s cellphone was one of several devices collected by law enforcement investigators as they tried to piece together a timeline of the former president’s assassination at a rally last Saturday.

“What’s starting to emerge is a portrait of troubled youth turning to violence,” said John Cohen, an ABC News contributor and former intelligence chief at the Department of Homeland Security.

Cohen, who specializes in mass shootings, said investigators may never be able to determine a single or specific motive for the attack.

Sources close to the investigation told ABC News that a search of the suspect’s phone history revealed no clues about Crooks’ political views or a motive for the shooting.

Investigators also found no digital traces of suspects showing any affiliation with international or domestic terrorist groups. They also could not identify any ideological ties to Trump and/or Biden, the sources said.

“The cause is likely a combination of mental health issues, ideological beliefs and personal feelings of discontent, the same combination of factors that has occurred in nearly every mass-casualty school shooting and attack in recent years. As in those incidents, the warning signs are there, but they are not recognized,” Cohen said.

“The threats are real, but those around them do not understand what they witnessed or how it could have happened last Saturday,” he added.

The FBI identified Crooks as a suspect Sunday morning. The U.S. Secret Service said snipers shot and killed Crooks at the scene.

Firefighter Corey Comperatore, a father who was attending the rally, was killed and two other people nearby were injured, authorities said.

When investigators analyzed the suspect’s phone, they looked at his search history, including questions asked of Trump and Biden. However, the search history did not necessarily reveal Crooks’ political views, sources told ABC News.

Law enforcement officials investigating the assassination attempt told lawmakers Wednesday that about 20 minutes passed between the time Secret Service snipers first saw Crooks on the roof and the time the first shots were fired, according to law enforcement officials and lawmakers briefed on the case.

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