Texts made public Sunday revealed Donald Trump’s would-be assassin was flagged as suspicious at least 90 minutes before he opened fire at a Pennsylvania rally this month.
But despite the repeated communications between officers at the site, none of the officers nearby moved to intercept Thomas Matthew Crooks, eventually losing track of him.
The messages, obtained by The New York Times, raise further questions about how law enforcement allowed Crooks, a 20-year-old who lived with his parents and worked at a nursing home, to come within inches of assassinating a former president.
The texts showed that an officer spotted Crooks occupying a suspicious area more than an hour-and-a-half before the July 13 rally commenced at 6 p.m. Previously, Secret Service officials said Crooks was first spotted an hour before the rally—an amount of time many lawmakers already considered to be egregious at a presidential candidate’s rally.
Other texts obtained by the Times revealed that an officer spotted Crooks using a range finder about 20 minutes before the rally began and snapped photos of him—but didn’t approach him.
Reuters/Aaron Josefczyk
The Times published screenshots from a group chat between members of a counter-sniper team at the rally. When one of the officers texted that his shift was ending, around 4:26 p.m., he warned that a man—later confirmed to be Crooks—had parked near them and knew the sniper team was there.
“Someone followed our lead and snuck in and parked by our cars just so you know,” the text from an officer read. A follow-up message said that Crooks was about 50 yards from the rally’s exit, at a picnic table. Two other counter-snipers responded with a thumbs up emoji and a “Roger that.”
Crooks had moved by 5:10 p.m., however. The Times reported he’d then positioned himself below a local sniper team who who were upstairs in a warehouse owned by AGR International—the very building Crooks eventually perched himself atop of and fired at Trump from.
While Crooks waited there, an officer texted pictures of him and said he witnessed the gunman point a range finder toward the rally stage, said an after-action report obtained by the Times. That text confirmed that police were wary of Crooks but still failed to approach him before he reached the rooftop.
The Times reported that Crooks was always a “step ahead of security forces, and in particular the Secret Service.” It wasn’t until 5:38 p.m. that, over text, one of the counter-snipers suggested that someone should alert the Secret Service, which has been criticized for deputizing high-risk areas like nearby rooftops to local law enforcement.
“Kid learning around building we are in,” wrote an officer alongside images they’d taken of Crooks from above. “AGR I believe it is. I did see him with a range finder looking towards stage. FYI. If you wanna notify SS snipers to look out. I lost sight of him.”
A follow-up message added: “Call it in to command and have a uniform check it out.”
Brendan McDermid
The “kid” referenced in the text would be lying dead less than 30 minutes later—killed by a single shot from a Secret Service sniper, but not until he’d rattled off at least three shots at Trump in his rally’s first minutes.
An officer climbed toward Crooks on the rooftop, mere seconds before he opened fire on Trump, but dropped from the roof’s ledge after Crooks aimed his rifle at him. That appears to be the closest law enforcement got to stopping Crooks before he opened fire.
Kimberly Cheatle, the Secret Service director who resigned last week, testified in front of Congress that she wasn’t sure which agency was in charge of overseeing the warehouse Crooks perched himself atop of.
Local police blamed a lack of manpower and “extremely poor planning” as reason for the debacle. The FBI said Crooks was not on its radar prior to the shooting, but not because the 20-year-old didn’t thoroughly plan his attack.
The FBI revealed last week that Crooks laid low without alerting law enforcement, using a drone to survey the site, compiling the ingredients to make a rudimentary bomb, and searching for information on the assassination of John F. Kennedy. He also registered to attend the Trump rally the day after it was announced.
