As the saying goes: hindsight is always 20-20. In that 20-20 retrospective, we seem to learn something new every day about what went wrong in 2024 to allow a young and inexperienced boy — or man, for that matter — to be so close to killing former president Donald Trump.
It was revealed on Monday that Thomas Matthew Crooks had attracted the attention of the local police more than 90 minutes before he fired the shots that injured Trump, two innocent bystanders, and killed firefighter Corey Comperatore who died while shielding his family.
According to newly released texts, the would-be Donald Trump killer Thomas Matthew Crooks was on authorities’ radar for more than 90 minutes before he opened up at the former President’s Pennsylvania rally. This is roughly half an hour more than officials had previously claimed.
The New York Times obtained text messages between members of the Beaver County Emergency Service Unit that revealed a concrete and earlier timeline leading up to the shooting which injured two rallygoers, and killed one.
The messages revealed that Crooks (20) was aware of law enforcement’s presence when he planned his assassination on the GOP candidate.
A counter-sniper sent a colleague a text message around 4:26 pm, saying that someone had followed his lead and parked near their cars.
The shooter, it is now known, did not use a ladder. Instead, he climbed onto an HVAC unit before traversing several rooftops to reach the spot where he fired his shots.
The FBI told reporters on Monday that Thomas Crooks, a would-be Trump killer, climbed up HVAC equipment and pipes to reach the roof of an office building in Butler, Pennsylvania near former President Trump’s July 13 rally.
Crooks then traversed several rooftops before he located his shooting position atop a building owned and operated by American Glass Research, which is located near the Butler Farm Show Fairgrounds. This was about 150 yards away from the place where the former President spoke during his rally.
There is also this.
In the following hour, law enforcers identified a building that was of interest and snipers photographed Crooks, his bicycle, and the area around the rally. Republican Missouri Senator Josh Hawley was briefed about the assassination and told Fox News Digital earlier that a sniper had “eyes on” the suspicious individual 20 minutes before Crooks started firing.
This raises several questions. Crooks’s weapon was not identified by the snipers, but later photos (which we will not reproduce here) show that he did not wear heavy clothing that could conceal a gun. Why did the Secret Service fail to engage him as soon as he was identified on the rooftop with a gun, and within range of an ex-President of the United States?
The U.S. Secret Service is defined by 18 U.S. Code SS3056. The legislation does not include rules of engagement, as we would expect. These rules are set by the agencies. The Secret Service website does not have any rules of engagement. One would expect a more aggressive response from someone who is a threat, such as a man with a gun on a roof within reach of a protected person.
We still don’t know everything about this incident. Stay tuned.
