Donald Trump’s would-be assassin, Thomas Matthew Crooks, appeared on authorities’ radar more than 90 minutes before he opened fire at the former president’s campaign rally in Pennsylvania — about a half-hour longer than authorities had previously said — according to newly released text messages.
Text messages exchanged between members of the Beaver County Emergency Services Unit, obtained by The New York Times, revealed a more concrete — and earlier — timeline leading to the shooting that grazed the former president in the ear, injured two rallygoers and killed one.
The messages also revealed that Crooks, 20, was aware of the presence of law enforcement as he prepared his assassination attempt on the GOP candidate.
“Someone followed our lead and snuck in and parked near our cars, just so you know,” one counter-sniper texted a colleague as he left around 4:26 p.m.
“I’m letting you know because you see me come out with my rifle and put it in my car so he knows you’re up there sitting on a picnic table to the right about 50 yards from the exit,” he wrote of the suspicious person who turned out to be Crooks.
Around 5:10 p.m., Crooks was under countersniper fire inside the AGR International warehouse building where the 20-year-old eventually climbed onto the roof and fired his AR-15, the Times reported.
One of the counter-snipers took photos of him and shared them in a group chat around 5:38 p.m.
An officer also wrote in a text that he had to inform the secret service about the suspicious person’s presence because the rangefinder he was carrying had alarmed the authorities, the newspaper reported.
“A child is learning around the building we are in. AGR I think it is,” the text reads. “I saw him with a rangefinder looking towards the stage [sic]. FYI. If you want to warn the SS snipers to be careful. I lost sight of him.
“Call command and have an officer check out the incident,” one officer texted, according to another message provided to the Times by Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley’s office.
According to the newspaper, the photos were shared with the secret service through a series of steps at the command center.
Another message in the group messages suggested that Crooks had moved to the rear of the AGR building complex “away from the event” around 6 p.m.
But that’s about the time Crooks was on the roof just minutes before he opened fire.
The texts show that authorities knew the identity of the suspect, who turned out to be Crooks, about 100 minutes before the shooting — not about 60 minutes before the assassination attempt that was previously mentioned in a congressional hearing, according to the Times.
Members of Trump’s Secret Service have filed a complaint, claiming they were not informed that local police were tracking a suspicious person at the Butler, Pennsylvania, rally, according to a report by The Washington Post.
Trump was shot in the ear while three rallygoers were shot, including Corey Comperatore, 50, who was killed protecting his family from harm. Crooks was killed by a Secret Service sniper shortly afterward.
The deranged gunman had planned the shooting in advance, federal authorities said, but his motive remains a mystery.
The Secret Service has come under fire since the shooting, with lawmakers questioning how the federal agency could have allowed Crooks to pull the trigger.
Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned last week amid an outcry.
