Texts say police knew of would-be Trump assassin 100 minutes before shooting

Newly released text messages reveal former President Donald Trump’s would-be assassin, Thomas Crooks, was on authorities’ radar nearly 100 minutes before he fired at Trump during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13. The New York Times received the text messages from the office of Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and verified them.

The first text was sent from a local police counter sniper at 4:26 p.m. that day. That counter sniper was leaving after his shift ended and he texted other counter snipers saying he had noticed someone had “snuck in” and parked by law enforcement’s vehicles.

“I’m just letting you know because you see me go out with my rifle and put it in my car so he knows you guys are up there," the text read. "He’s sitting to the direct right on a picnic table about 50 yards from the exit.”

That counter sniper confirmed the man he spotted was later identified as Crooks.

Forty-four minutes later, at 5:10 p.m., Crooks was no longer at the picnic table. One of the counter snipers who was upstairs in the AGR International warehouse took pictures of Crooks, who was below the counter snipers, outside the building.

At 5:38 p.m., those pictures were shared in a group chat among officers.

“Kid lurking around building we are in. AGR I believe it is,” the text said. “I did see him with a rangefinder looking towards stage. FYI. If you wanna notify SS snipers to look out. I lost sight of him. Also a bike with a backpack sitting next to it in rear of building that was not seen earlier… call it into command and have a uniform check it out.”

At 6:11 p.m., shots rang out from atop the AGR International warehouse, where Crooks was able to position himself about 400 feet away from Trump and have a clear line of sight to the former president.

Several bullets flew past Trump’s head with one clipping him in the right ear. One person was killed and two others were critically wounded.

A Secret Service sniper team fired at Crooks, killing him just seconds after he opened fire.

Testimony from FBI Director Christopher Wray and former Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle also helps fill in some of the blanks, including that Crooks did research on President John F. Kennedy’s 1963 assassination.

“On July 6, he did a Google search for quote ‘how far away was Oswald from Kennedy?’” Director Wray said.

According to Wray’s testimony, on July 5, Crooks traveled about an hour from his home in Bethel Park to Butler, Pennsylvania, to scope out the site of Trump’s rally.

He also drove to the Butler site the morning of the rally and left after approximately an hour. Crooks then bought 50 rounds of ammunition from a sports store before returning to the rally site just before 4 p.m.

During testimony, Wray said Crooks had purchased a 5-foot ladder the morning of the shooting. The ladder was not found at the shooting site and it was unclear how Crooks got onto the roof of the warehouse with a rifle.

“The weapon had a collapsible stock, which could explain why it might have been less easy for people to observe,” Director Wray testified. “Because one of the things we’re finding is that people have observed him. The first people to observe him with the weapon is when he was already on the roof, and we haven’t yet found anybody with firsthand observation of him with the weapon walking around beforehand. So that doesn’t mean he wasn’t, obviously, but the collapsible stock is potentially a significant feature.”

The local SWAT team out of Beaver County, Pennsylvania, who were stationed in the AGR building, also told ABC News they had zero communication with the Secret Service snipers the day of the shooting.

“We were supposed to get a face-to-face briefing with the Secret Service snipers whenever they arrived, and that never happened,” Jason Woods, lead sharpshooter for the Beaver County SWAT team, said.

Former Secret Service Director Cheatle told a congressional panel she was unaware which agency had jurisdiction over the AGR warehouse building.

Cheatle resigned on July 23, one day after testifying on Capitol Hill.

The FBI is still investigating the assassination attempt against former President Trump.

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