Thomas Matthew Crooks, armed with an AR-style rifle, managed to scale a building and access its roof, which offered a direct sightline to former President Donald Trump, speaking less than 150 yards away at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13.
It was by chance that Trump, deviating from his teleprompter, turned his head to look at a chart displayed for the crowd at the exact moment a bullet grazed his ear instead of piercing his skull.
A security operations plan had positioned three counter-snipers from Beaver County’s Emergency Services Unit (ESU) team inside the same building to monitor the rally from windows, with none stationed on its roof, as reported by BeaverCountian. Additionally, two sources familiar with the agency’s operations disclosed to NBC News that this site was identified by the Secret Service as a potential vulnerability days before the event, with the agency fully aware of the associated risks.
Questions: Beyond ‘AR-15’ what weapon, exactly? How was it equipped? What type of ammunition, exactly? How many shots? How many unfired rounds left in the magazine? In the backpack? How many people were hit/grazed? Who are they and what are their injuries. What are President Trump’s injuries? How many fired rounds have been recovered? From where? Is the venue still an active crime scene, and if so, why was the roof being washed? What was the presumptive shooter doing over the several days prior? What was the transmitter for? What else was in the car? Was the shooter in contact with anyone by phone or other device while at the rally? Was the water tower covered? If so, how? If not, why not?
According to reporting by The New York Times, a Secret Service spokesman acknowledged that local police officers radioed agents about a suspicious person on Saturday before Trump went onstage. Were these the same agents in the command center notified by Sergeant Nicol as early as at least 5:45 p.m. that day—nearly 30 minutes before shots were fired? If so, was this crucial information relayed to Trump’s security detail on the ground? If not, why not? And if it was communicated, why was Trump allowed to take the stage?
Responding to reports that Crooks was seen and identified as potentially suspicious before he opened fire, the United States Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle told ABC News that only “a very short period of time” passed between then and the shooting. “Seeking that person out, finding them, identifying them, and eventually neutralizing them took place in a very short period of time,” she said, “and it makes it very difficult.”
It’s unclear if the “very short period of time” referenced by Cheatle includes the nearly 30 minutes (at least) of multiple warnings about Crooks, complete with photos taken of him, that were relayed to the command center—warnings issued by law enforcement stationed inside the building under the direction of the Secret Service.
Cheatle also seemed to shift blame to local law enforcement, saying that local authorities were tasked with securing the building from where the shots were fired. “There was local police in that building—there was local police in the area responsible for the outer perimeter of the building,” she stated. However, NBC News reported that Butler County District Attorney Richard Goldinger asserted that the Secret Service was in charge of security outside the venue. “They had meetings the week prior. The Secret Service ran the show. They designated who did what,” Goldinger explained. “In the command hierarchy, they were top, they were No. 1.”
A timeline compiled from reports by BeaverCountian and WXPI Channel 11 reveals multiple warnings about Crooks that were seemingly ignored or inadequately addressed:
- A law enforcement officer from Beaver County’s ESU team had seen Crooks on the ground prior to 5:45 p.m.—nearly 30 minutes before shots were fired at 6:11 p.m.—and called him in as a suspicious person with a picture. (WXPI Channel 11)
- Sergeant Gregory Nicol, one of the three municipal counter-snipers stationed inside the building, “saw the guy [Crooks] looking up at the roof of the building he was stationed in, like scoping it out, and took a picture of him that he sent to command as a be on the lookout,” a source within law enforcement said. (BeaverCountian)
- An officer checked the grounds for Crooks at that point, but did not see him where the first picture was taken. (WXPI Channel 11)
- Sergeant Nicol then “saw [Crooks] return to the building, this time carrying a backpack, more warnings were issued to command. [Crooks] sat down, and began looking at his phone. Trump was running about an hour late.” (BeaverCountian)
- Nicol “saw [Crooks] take out a rangefinder to gauge distance from the building to where Trump was going to be speaking, he again notified command about what he was seeing.” (BeaverCountian)
- An officer noticed a suspicious man on a roof near the rally at 5:45 p.m., called it in and took a picture of the person. It’s not clear if Crooks had a gun with him at that point. (WXPI Channel 11)
- Twenty-six minutes after the second picture of Crooks was taken by law enforcement around 5:45 p.m., and the information called in, shots were fired from the roof of the American Glass Research building. (WXPI Channel 11)
It’s unclear whether Sergeant Nicol, named in the BeaverCountian report, is the same officer described in WXPI’s report.
On the election front, you wonder why Democrats fought so hard to allow registration to vote without proof of citizenship???