A local sniper spotted a suspicious person sitting at a picnic table near the American Grass Research Complex at 4:26 p.m. on July 13, but the person was not the would-be assassin, Thomas Matthew Crooks, but someone with a “similar appearance,” Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said.
A text message sent by the countersniper to other local SWAT officers inside the AGR complex in Butler Township, Pennsylvania, said he had seen a suspicious person sitting at a picnic table leaving with the sniper's weapon earlier that day. That person was not Crooks, Sen. Grassley said in a statement.
“Just letting you know he knows you're there because he saw me go outside with my rifle and put it in my car,” the SWAT officer texted other local counter-sniper officers at 4:26 p.m. “He's sitting directly to the right of a picnic table about 50 yards from the exit.”
“The suspect was only on the roof for approximately six minutes before the shots were fired.”
The July 13 timeline revision was prompted by new cellphone video posted to social media that shows would-be assassin Crooks walking along concession tables in the area outside the security perimeter south of the Butler Farm Show Co. grandstand.
This change is significant because local police did not see Crooks and identify him as suspicious until 5:10 p.m., when he was spotted on the west end of AGR Building 3, north of the Donald J. Trump rally security perimeter.
Previous sightings have been incorrectly identified as Crooks.
“Additional investigation findings and subsequent interviews with sources revealed that this individual was an unidentified person who was considered suspicious by Beaver County law enforcement,” a spokesperson for Sen. Grassley said in an email to news outlets.
Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, fired eight shots from an AR-15 rifle into a crowd at a Trump rally at 6:11 p.m. on July 13, wounding Trump in the right ear, killing volunteer firefighter Corey Comperatore and wounding bystanders David Duch and James Copenhaver.
The assassination attempt sparked at least 10 federal and state investigations by the FBI, Pennsylvania State Police, the U.S. House of Representatives, the U.S. Senate, and the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General, as well as an independent investigation led by Representatives Eli Klain of Arizona and Corey Mills of Florida (R-Arizona).
For the latest on Grassley, Video submission A photo posted to social media by Joe Tomko, a clothing retailer for Iron Clad USA, showed Crooks walking along a line of vendors outside the secured area of the Trump event at 4:26 p.m. Crooks was wearing the same lightweight shorts, gray T-shirt and black socks as the body found on the roof after the shooting.
Tomko's video appears to be the first video of Crooks seen on July 13 after the would-be assassin arrived at the venue at 3:45 p.m. Tomko's video displays metadata from Crooks' cell phone, including the exact location where he was when he captured the footage.
In a conference call with media on Aug. 28, the FBI confirmed that Crooks was seen among tables at a store on the south side of the auditorium.
Greg Nicol, a local counter-shooter with Beaver County Emergency Services Unit SWAT, first observed Crooks as a suspicious person at 5:10 PM. Nicol took two photographs of Crooks leaning against a retaining wall at AGR Building 3 at 5:14 PM. Nicol was identified as the counter-shooter who took the photographs by a fellow Beaver County SWAT member who was seen on police body camera footage after the shooting.
A local police sniper captured a photo of would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks on a retaining wall near the building used as a base to shoot and kill former President Donald J. Trump on July 13.
Photo courtesy of Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.)
According to an updated timeline released by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) on Aug. 29, Nicol (identified as “AGR Sniper 1”) witnessed Crooks looking at his cell phone and operating a rangefinder, a device used in shooting and sports to estimate the distance to a target, at 5:32 p.m.
The rifle is damaged but functional.
In other developments, photos released by the FBI showed damage to the butt of Crooks' AR-15-style rifle, likely from a bullet fired by Butler Emergency Services SWAT officers shortly after Crooks fired his eighth shot into the rally crowd.
FBI evidence photos of Crooks' rifle show a chipped section at the top of the folding stock, with jagged edges that appear to have been blown away from the polymer material.
In a preliminary report to the Bipartisan Task Force on the Assassination Attempt of Donald J. Trump, U.S. Rep. Clay Higgins (R-Louisiana) reported that Crooks was “wounded” in the face, neck and shoulder when SWAT rounds struck his rifle butt, at which point Crooks stopped firing and was shot and killed by a counter-sniper before he could fire another shot.
An FBI evidence photo shows damage to the stock of an AR-15-style rifle used by attempted assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks in Butler Township, Pennsylvania on July 13, 2024. FBI photo, expanded details by The Blaze News
Testing by the FBI showed the rifle was still fully functional.
Higgins previously said that SWAT rounds may have damaged the buffer tube in Crooks' rifle, rendering it unusable. “If the AR buffer tube had been damaged, Crooks' rifle would not have fired after the eighth shot,” Higgins wrote.
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Media call on August 28th, According to the FBI, Crooks gained access to the roof of the AGR complex at 6:05 p.m. by climbing onto an air conditioning unit between buildings 9 and 2, well north of where he ultimately stopped for the shooting.
“The overall findings indicate that the suspect was only on the roof for approximately six minutes prior to the shooting, between 6:05 p.m. and 6:11 p.m.,” said Kevin Rojek, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI's Pittsburgh Field Office.
Rojek said toxicology tests conducted as part of Crooks' autopsy “tested negative for 'alcohol and drugs of abuse.'” He did not say whether the toxicology tests turned up any prescription drugs.
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