Beaver County Emergency Services' counter-sniper unit released a photo taken 33 minutes before assassination plotter Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire on former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania at 6:11 p.m. on July 13.
The countersnipers also exchanged messages about Crooks, according to text messages released by Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley.
The text messages and photos, first published by The New York Times, do not explain why or how Crooks ended up on the roof of the AGR International building, where he shot Trump, killed firefighter Corey Comperatore and wounded two others.
Cheater and bike spotted
An officer near the end of his shift spotted Crooks and texted his colleague at 4:26 p.m.
“Someone snuck in after us and parked next to our vehicle,” the officer wrote.
“I'm just letting you know because he saw me go outside with my rifle and put it in my car,” the message continued, “so he knows you guys are out there and he's sitting directly to the right of the picnic table about 50 yards from the exit.”
At 5:38 p.m., officers shared a photo of Crooks and his motorcycle with a message noting that Crooks had a rangefinder.
“There's a kid studying around the building we're in,” the message reported. “I think it's AGR. I saw him looking through a rangefinder towards the stage. FYI, if you want to alert any SS snipers so they can be on the lookout. I lost sight of him. Also, behind the building there was a bike with a backpack on its side that I hadn't seen before.”
“Notify command and have uniformed personnel check in,” the 5:40 p.m. message said.
“They're asking about direction of travel,” an officer said 12 minutes before Crooks opened fire.
“I'm not sure,” came a reply at 6pm. “He was leaning up against a building. If I had to guess, I'd say towards the back. Far from the event venue.”
According to a timeline of Crooks' actions in the Beaver County team's after-action report, officers spotted him at 5:10 p.m., took a photo of him at 5:14 p.m., took a photo of his motorcycle at 5:28 p.m., and saw him “looking at his cell phone, his news feed, and the rangefinder he checked with his monocular” at 5:32 p.m. After 5:34 p.m., officers exchanged messages about Crooks' location, according to the report.
As the Times reported, the text messages “add to evidence that the would-be assassins were one step ahead of the security forces, particularly the Secret Service.”
The Times continued:
Crooks toured the rally a day before the Secret Service did. While the Secret Service had not asked permission to use a drone at the rally, Crooks used one to survey the rally. He measured how far Lee Harvey Oswald, who shot and killed President John F. Kennedy in 1963, was from the president, estimating the distance was about 265 feet. He then managed to climb onto a roof that was about 400 feet from Trump at its closest point, a spot that the Secret Service had left unattended.
Counter-snipers had been deployed to monitor the rally, but Crooks was in a position to keep an eye on them…
As officers are seen walking toward the warehouse where Crooks' body lies, one officer can be heard saying in the video: “We're trying to figure out how this guy got here.”
The killer was able to get to the building because the Secret Service excluded it from its security coverage. In testimony before the U.S. House Oversight Committee, then-Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle said she did not know which agencies were supposed to be guarding the roof of AGR. She resigned the day after this damning testimony.
Crooks' Move
The Times also reported that local police officers were briefed on the day's events at 9 a.m., when Crooks was at Home Depot buying a ladder to climb to the roof of the AGR building.
Crooks then made his way to the rally site, arriving there by about 10am and remaining there for around 70 minutes as local anti-sniper forces arrived.
After leaving, Crooks drove back to his hometown and bought 50 rounds of ammunition at Allegheny Arms & Gun Works. He then returned to Butler and arrived at the agricultural fair in his Hyundai Sonata at about 3:35 p.m., according to cellphone location data. About 15 minutes later, he flew the drone over the fair for 11 minutes, including a path about 200 yards from Trump's podium.
He finished using the drone and sat down at a picnic table, where a countersniper spotted him.
Crooks walked to his car, left the drone inside, and was soon wandering around the warehouse complex.
Crooks did not use a ladder and was attempting to get onto the roof when text messages were exchanged between officers at 6 p.m. that said the suspect was leaning against the building.
“Trump took the podium before a cheering crowd at 6:03 p.m.,” the Times reported.
Six minutes later, rally attendees began pointing at someone on the roof of the warehouse. By luck or preparation, Crooks found a spot on the roof that gave him a clear view of Trump while also providing some degree of cover from Secret Service counter-snipers.
Butler County officers did not have ladders, so one officer lifted the other up while the other grabbed the roof and pulled himself up, then saw Crooks pointing his gun at him, and with no hand to pull his own gun up, the officer fell.
Body camera footage
The photo and text mark Grassley's second major announcement after he released police body camera footage last week confirming that a local officer had filmed Crooks.
The footage shows local police and Secret Service agents having a conversation about who saw Crooks before he tried to assassinate President Trump.
Today marks the deadline for Secretary of Homeland Security and Interim Director of the Secret Service Ron Lowe to answer Grassley's questions below.
• Did the Secret Service deploy drones? If not, why?
• Did local and/or state police request drone surveillance, and if so, did the Secret Service deploy a drone? If not, why?
• Was an unauthorized drone flown over the restricted airspace surrounding the rally?
• If so, were the Secret Service drone operators aware of this and did they take any countermeasures? If not, why?
• Who in the Secret Service decides whether to deploy drones?
Senator Grassley's latest comments come in response to a Washington Post report that the Secret Service had repeatedly refused requests for increased security from the Trump campaign.
