The timeline of Thomas Matthew Crooks’ movements before his assassination attempt on Donald Trump is becoming clearer but his motives still remain a mystery. What is certain, however, is that despite being alerted several times before the shooting, law enforcement failed to apprehend him. Republican lawmakers are calling on the director of the Secret Service to resign.
Donald Trump was shot by 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks on Saturday, July 13th at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in what was an assassination attempt. One spectator was killed, and two others were injured. Trump’s right ear was pierced by one of the shots.
Here are the latest updates, based on U.S. media reports.
What do we know about the perpetrator?
His motives, beyond the obvious, are still not clear. Law enforcement agencies have interviewed dozens of people who knew the would-be assassin but have not come closer to revealing his motivation.
He lived in Bethel Park, a middle-class suburb of Pittsburgh, with his parents and older sister. He did not have many friends and was described as a “loner” who spent a lot of time playing video games and building computers. In high school, he kept mostly to himself, showed no signs of being interested in politics, and was occasionally bullied by his schoolmates
At college, he attended a two-year course in engineering, graduating in May. He was described as a conscientious student, “quiet but pleasant,” and it is bewildering that he could have turned murderous, said one of his former instructors. Most recently, he worked as a dietary aide at a nursing home, where he “performed his job without concern.”
What do his electronic devices reveal?
Crooks searched images of current U.S. President Joe Biden and his predecessor, Donald Trump on his phone in the days before the shooting. He had also searched for the dates of Trump’s public appearances and of the Democratic National Convention where Joe Biden is set to appear. He had researched websites regarding bullet trajectory, and looked up “major depressive disorder.”
He spent time on Discord, a gaming platform, but the company said it found “no evidence that it was used to plan this incident, promote violence, or discuss his political views.” Much of Crooks’ communication was done in encrypted messages. Days before the attempted assassination he wrote a message on the gaming platform Steam: “July 13 will be my premiere, watch as it unfolds.”
Events leading up to July 13th
Crooks, who was a member of a local gun club, purchased an ammunition box, a container designed for the safe transport and storage of ammunition, at a Walmart store on July 5th, two days after the rally in Butler was announced. On the morning of July 13th, he visited the rally site, was there for an hour, and then left.
He bought ammunition later in the day, stopping at a gun store in his hometown of Bethel Park to pick up fifty rounds. He built three homemade bombs, of which two were found in his car and another in his home. In the preceding months, Crooks had received “multiple packages, including some marked as possibly containing hazardous material.” The AR-15-style semi-automatic rifle he used was purchased legally by his father several years earlier. Investigators also found a tactical vest in his car, although it is unclear why he did not wear it during the attack. According to ABC News, “the shooter had prepared for carnage.”
Crooks’ parents contacted police on Saturday hours before the attempted assassination, telling them that their son was missing and that they were concerned about his welfare.
The day of the assassination attempt
There are contradicting reports as to what exactly happened but multiple sources have confirmed that Crooks was identified as a potential threat a full hour before the shots were fired.
The perpetrator arrived at the scene around 5 p.m. and tried to enter the security perimeter. He was first identified as a person of interest ten minutes later. At 5:30 p.m., he was spotted looking at the roof of a building—from which he later fired the shots—peering into the lens of a rangefinder, a small device that hunters use to measure distance from a target.
Between the time he was first spotted and when he fired at Trump, there were two sets of radio transmissions, one reporting that police were looking for a suspicious person and another more generic warning that officers were following up on something suspicious. A photo was also taken of Crooks and distributed electronically to other officers at the scene. A police officer had approached the suspicious-looking Crooks when he was standing near the metal detectors that spectators had to pass to gain access to the event. However, Crooks backed away and faded into the crowd.
The next time he appeared was when witnesses saw him climbing up the side of a building that was outside the security perimeter. Crooks scaled an air conditioning unit accessible from the ground and pulled himself up to the top of the building. From there, he gained access to the top of the neighbouring American Glass Research (AGR) building that was around 120 metres from the stage where Trump was preparing to give his speech. There, he set up his rifle and lay on the rooftop, a detonator in his pocket to set off the explosive devices that were stashed in his car parked nearby.
According to media reports, snipers saw Crooks on the roof at 5:52 p.m. before the shooting began at 6:12 p.m. Crooks was peering through his rangefinder at the snipers who were looking back at him.
People in the crowd noticed the man belly crawling on the roof with the gun and tried to alert police officers.
Two officers responded, one of them hoisted the other to the edge of the roof. As the officer pulled his head over the edge, he spotted Crooks who pointed his gun at the officer. The policeman had no time to unholster his gun and dropped back to the ground. Crooks immediately fired shots at Donald Trump. Snipers who were stationed on buildings behind Trump killed Crooks.
What security failures occurred?
Why former President Trump was allowed to take the stage after a potential threat had been identified is only one of many questions surrounding the behaviour of law enforcement and security agencies.
“We are speaking of a failure,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said. It is evident that severe security blunders preceded the assassination attempt.
They were likely partly caused by the fact that it wasn’t clear who was responsible for securing the area within and outside of the security perimeter. The building used by Crooks was outside of the perimeter, and the Secret Service have said local police should have secured the rooftop. However, security experts argue that buildings with a direct sight line and within firing range of the former president should have been swept and under constant surveillance by the service’s sniper teams.
According to some reports, local police personnel and sniper units were actually in the AGR building when Crooks climbed onto its roof. Secret Service counter snipers positioned near the stage were aware of this, and that could have led to a delay in their reactions because they first had to figure out whether the suspect was a threat or a member of law enforcement.
Communication problems may also have played a part. There were members of at least six different agencies at the event, including two sheriff’s offices, local police, state police, and multiple teams within the Secret Service, plus fire and emergency rescue officials. Within those agencies are individual divisions that have different duties.
What happens next?
Top Republicans in the U.S. Congress have called on the head of the Secret Service, Kimberly Cheatle to resign. “Americans demand and deserve answers from Director Cheatle about the attempted assassination of President Trump and the Secret Service’s egregious failures,” the U.S. House of Representatives’ oversight committee said on Wednesday. Public hearings will be held in Congress next week, and Cheatle is due to testify before the oversight and homeland security committees.
