The United States Secret Service was warned about Thomas Matthew Crooks and designated him as a “threat” 10 minutes before former President Donald Trump took the stage, but allowed Trump to go on anyway, according to reports.
The agency was also warned that there was a “character of suspicion” on the grounds more than an hour before Saturday’s deadly shooting at Trump’s campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, sources said.
The details reportedly emerged during a stunning Senate briefing by the Secret Service on Wednesday, July 17
Crooks was not described as having a gun when the warning went out.
“He was identified as a character of suspicion because [he had] a rangefinder as well as a backpack. And this was over an hour before the shooting actually occurred,” said Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.).
“So, you would think over the course of that hour, you shouldn’t lose sight of the individual. Somebody ought to be following up on those sorts of things. No evidence of that happening at all.”
A fatal combination of systemic and in-the-moment security failures led to the attempt on Trump’s life before Saturday’s rally even began.
This flurry of catastrophic errors enabled Crooks to move around the grounds for hours before he opened fire on the Butler, Pennsylvania crowd, killing a hero ex-firefighter, clipping the former president and critically wounding two others.
It was previously unknown whether local police who spotted Crooks outside the perimeter of the rally had warned Secret Service agents in time. But these new details confirm that the agency got the message, but failed to act on it.
Barrasso noted that the top Secret Service agent in charge of securing the rally was speaking to local police on the phone as the shooting took place.
He called on Secret Service chief Kimberly Cheatle to resign.
The groundwork was laid for disaster well in advance, due to a series of grievous decisions at the highest levels according to the testimony. Cheatle said the agency opted not to station a sniper on the roof of the AGR International building from which Crooks would later unleash his deadly rifle assault on the crowd because it was too slanted.
The decision to leave the building’s roof unguarded gave Crooks an ideal sniper’s position on a silver platter, an elevated position with an unobstructed line of sight just 130 yards away from Trump on the stage.
The reasoning behind the choice to keep agents off the roof is weird considering the Secret Service was warned ahead of the campaign rally that local police would be unable to spare a patrol car to park outside the building for the event.
The agency “was informed that the local police department did not have the manpower to assist with securing that building,” Butler County District Attorney Richard Goldinger told the Washington Post.
A Secret Service official even confirmed to the outlet that stationing an officer outside the building was considered one of the ways to ensure the building which was just outside the rally’s established security perimeter – was properly secured.
The Secret Service finally posted officers inside the building on the day of the rally, but Crooks had no apparent difficulty scaling the building right under their noses and positioning himself with his father’s AR-style assault rifle.
This means even before the first attendee showed up, an easily accessible, single-story structure that was a known security risk was left without adequate protection both outside and on the roof.
Also, the lanky, awkward Crooks apparently stuck out in the crowd like a sore thumb from the moment he arrived.
He set off the metal detector at the rally entrance because he was carrying a rangefinder, a type of eyepiece scope often used by hunters or golfers to determine far-off distances.
Despite the unusual item, Crooks passed the entry gates.
The rangefinder wasn’t even confiscated, and a rooftop counter-sniper team would later report Crooks was watching them with his rangefinder while they watched him with theirs.
Security personnel reportedly kept their eyes on the 20-year-old until he was past the secure area. But it wasn’t long before he drew the suspicion of officials again not once, but twice – and was even photographed and reported according to the New York Times.
Around 5:45 p.m., just 26 minutes before the shots rang out, a member of the Beaver County Emergency Services Unit (ESU) saw Crooks up on the roof and took a photo. At nearly the exact same time, a Beaver County police officer also reported Crooks as a suspicious person and also took his picture for their report.
But the reports weren’t acted on or received in time to avert the tragedy.
In the final minutes before Crooks pulled the trigger, rallygoers near the AGR building saw him up on the roof with a long gun and started screaming to alert nearby law enforcement.
As the online video showed, even as the screaming continued, Crooks had enough time to repeatedly adjust his position and ready himself to take his shot. Another bystander can be heard screaming “He’s got a gun!” just 12 seconds before the first bullets flew.
But it was already too late, leading to the first assassination attempt on a former or current US president in 43 years.
