The man who tried to assassinate Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at a Butler, Pennsylvania rally had prepared better than the protection detail and was able to slip through the cracks in security, the New York Times has reported.
The shooter opened fire at 6:11pm that Saturday, nicking Trump’s ear as the former US president turned away. He was later identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, from a nearby town.
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Text messages and after-action reports provided to the Times by Senator Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican, revealed that local police had noticed Crooks almost more than 90 minutes before he fired, but kept losing sight of him.
Crooks had visited the fairgrounds in Butler on July 7. The Secret Service did not show up until a day later, which is when they decided not to include the AGR warehouse complex in the security perimeter, according to the Times.
On July 13, the day of the rally, the Secret Service did not attend the 9am security briefing for local law enforcement. By 10am, Crooks had bought a ladder and driven to the rally site. He stayed around for over an hour, observing the local police. He then drove back to his hometown, bought 50 rounds of ammunition, and drove back, arriving around 3:35pm, “according to geolocation information from one of his cellphones,” the outlet noted.
The Secret Service had not bothered to survey the area with drones, but Crooks did. Around 3:50pm that Saturday, he flew a drone over the site for about 11 minutes, before putting it back into his car and returning to the nearby picnic tables. It was at this point that a local counter-sniper first spotted him, as he finished his shift. The officer warned his colleagues at 4:26pm that someone had “snuck in” and “knows you guys are up there.”
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Nothing happened until 5:14pm, Crooks was spotted using a range finder. One of the county counter-snipers took a photo of Crooks. It was shared in the group chat of the local police department at 5:38pm, and then relayed to the Secret Service.
One of the two remaining counter-snipers ran out of the AGR building to keep an eye on Crooks until backup arrived, according to Butler County district attorney Richard Goldinger. Crooks had already run off, however, and the sniper returned to post. Four Butler Township officers were pulled from directing traffic to help locate him.
One officer texted at 6pm, suggesting that Crooks had moved “away from the event.” In reality, the Times noted, he had climbed onto the roof about 120 meters away from the stage.
“There is still confusion about which agency was supposed to oversee the roof,” the Times reported. The Secret Service had left it empty. Beaver County “struggled to find enough volunteers to cover the 12-hour shift,” according to text messages.
Trump took the stage at 6:03pm. Six minutes later, the audience at the rally began pointing to someone on the roof of the warehouse. “Either through luck or preparation,” Crooks had found a spot that let him have a clear shot at Trump, but kept him “somewhat hidden” from the Secret Service, according to the Times.
At 6:11pm, Crooks fired at Trump. The Secret Service snipers reacted and fatally shot him. At least eight spent cartridges were found next to his lifeless body. Police who eventually showed up on the roof could not figure out how Crooks had got there.
Kimberly Cheatle resigned as the Secret Service director ten days later, after insisting she would not. No one at the agency was reprimanded, fired or otherwise held accountable for the near-fatal incident.