Police noticed Thomas Matthew Crooks, the shooter, acting suspiciously 1 hour and 45 minutes before he shot at former President Donald Trump.
Text messages reveal that police snipers noticed Thomas Matthew Crooks at the site of former President Donald Trump’s July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, nearly two hours before the assassination attempt on Mr. Trump.
The assassination attempt—which led to former President Donald Trump’s right ear being grazed by a bullet—is the subject of several official investigations by Congress and the executive branch. On July 29, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) published several text messages sent by a counter-sniper of the Beaver County Sheriff’s Office indicating that he noticed Mr. Crooks acting suspiciously near the rally site at 4:26 p.m., which was 1 hour and 45 minutes before shots were fired at 6:11 p.m.
“Someone followed our lead and snuck in and parked by our cars just so you know,” wrote the unnamed officer, who was a counter-sniper assigned to the rally, in a text to a messaging group of other local police counter-snipers on duty. “He knows you guys are up there,” the officer writes to the other officers, adding details about Mr. Crooks’s location in a complex of buildings adjacent to the rally site.
At 5:38 p.m., another police counter-sniper, Gregory Nicol, wrote on the same group chat that Mr. Crooks was using a rangefinder to examine the rally site.
“I did see him with a rangefinder looking towards the stage. FYI. If you wanna notify SS snipers to look out,” Mr. Nicol wrote, referring to Secret Service counter-snipers that were positioned close to former President Trump. He then asks others in the group to “call it in to command and have a uniform[ed officer] check it out.”
“I assumed that there would be somebody coming out to speak with this individual or, you know, find out what was going on,” Mr. Nicol told ABC News in an interview.
At 5:45 p.m., a police officer on the group chat shared pictures taken of Mr. Crooks walking around the AGR Building, which Mr. Crooks eventually climbed upon to shoot at former President Trump. The officer also shared photos of Mr. Crooks’s bicycle, which, at 5:52 p.m., is noted to have been moved from the spot in the photo.
By Arjun Singh
