Only a few hours ago as I type, it emerged that the shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks, who narrowly failed to assassinate former president Donald Trump, surveyed the site in advance using a drone, as reported by the Wall Street Journal.
It had already been reported that a drone had been recovered from Crooks' possessions, but clearly it has now been investigated so that recent flight data is known.
According to CBS's re-telling: "Investigators are still probing exactly when the shooter, identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, flew the drone, the law enforcement officials said. They believe, however, that it was within days of the rally, though it remains unclear if he flew the drone hours or days prior to the event."
Because of recent efforts – led not exclusively but especially by Republicans – to ban DJI drones, the brand of the drone in question might be of particular interest, and whether it (and consumer drones in general) comes under even more intense scrutiny.
At the moment, the future of DJI in the USA sits on a knife edge in the Capitol. Representative Elise Stefanik's ban on DJI specifically was attached to the NDAA, but not kept in the Senate draft.
That law hasn't passed yet, though, and if it turns out to be a DJI drone it'd be easy to imagine lobbyists getting this amendment re-inserted before the bill finally progresses.
Was Thomas Matthew Crooks using a DJI drone?
Yes, according to NBC news. Initially, I reasoned there were reasons for thinking either way. DJI is the biggest brand, but...
I speculated that Crooks (though obviously very muddle-headed) probably saw himself as some kind of patriot – doing something for what HE thought was for the good of his country. In which case he might have opted for an explicitly American drone brand.
Among companies that emphasise their American-ness are Skydio, the originally Chinese company Autel, and the French company Parrot sell a drone called the Anafi USA.
An NBC source called Crooks' donre, however, as a DJI drone, which likely means it was very old, had non-DJI software, or was one of the more expensive models.
That's assuming that other reports – which use the phrase "on a programmed flight path" are correct. (Let's be fair, we've learned over the course of the threatened bans in various committees how many with senior roles in the US do not apparently understand the mechanics of consumer drone tech, so any information needs to be taken with a pinch of salt.
In any case, a predetermined flight might mean Crooks surveyed multiple times, or pre-programmed the flight so that it wouldn't take too long when he visited. Since he lived about 50 miles away, it almost certainly wasn't a fully remote mission.
If he was using a planned feature at all, it can rule out several DJI models which don't have Waypoint mission features (the Mini 2 SE, Mini 4K etc.), so that's quite a spend.
(Of course if we weren't expecting DJI it would not eliminate competitors like the Potensic Atom which owe places on the best beginners drones list in part to including planning features).
More worryingly for the future of consumer drones, NBC reported:
"It’s unclear how investigators learned about the drone flight, but drones often leave electronic traces of their flight paths, and DJI may have had a record of the flight."
That's definitely the sort of thing that can come back to bite people on the behind, isn't it?
Imagine this scenario:
"So, tell me, you were able to help us because you have records of this flight made by an American citizen stored on a computer in communist China..."
"But we helped you investigate a potential national security threat"
You an probably fill that imaginary Senate hearing in however you want!
All of this speculation is a more than little odd – but it's likely Crooks' actions will have a political backlash that has the potential to affect drone users.
The consumer drone lobby is definitely weaker than the gun lobby in America – if there is a backlash my bet drones, not guns, will be the market of the ban. Politics can be strange. We'll see.
Check our guide to the best camera drones and the best non-DJI drones.
