A new report has shed even more disturbing light on the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump that will only add to the questions surrounding the horrific incident that occurred in Butler, Pa., on Saturday.
The report suggests that security identified Thomas Crooks, a 20-year-old suspect, as a person of interest at former President Donald Trump’s rally well before he fired several rounds, nearly missing Trump by grazing his right ear while killing a rallygoer behind him and injuring two others.
“Earlier in the day, he went through Secret Service security WITH his rangefinder and scoped out the snipers, who spotted him and said they need to keep an eye on him,” News Busters journalist Curtis Houck wrote in a post on X. “He went into work at a nursing home and asked off for Saturday, but told coworkers he’d see them on Sunday. Detonators for the explosives in his car were found on him on the roof with three, fully loaded magazines of nearly 100 rounds and a bulletproof vest.” Houck shared a video of CNN’s John Miller summarizing what he had learned about Crooks’ activities before the shots were fired.
WATCH:
#BREAKING: CNN’s John Miller reveals three new details on the gunman who tried to assassinate Donald Trump:
– Earlier in the day, he went through Secret Service security WITH his rangefinder and scoped out the snipers, who spotted him and said they need to keep an eye on him.
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) July 16, 2024
“When he got to the fairgrounds where this rally was being held for Donald Trump, the first thing that puts him on the radar of security people is … near the magnetometer area where they’re screening people in, he’s carrying in his hand a rangefinder, it’s a device that looks like a small pair of binoculars, but it’s used by shooters to measure the distance when they’re setting up a long-distance shot,” Miller said.
“Because he didn’t have a weapon, that would not have prevented him from going through security, but they did flag ‘what does he have this in his hand for?’” Miller added. “At that point, they told people to keep an eye on this guy, but then he leaves the secure area, the staging area, and he doesn’t turn up again for some time until the crowd says there’s a guy crawling up the roof, and it appears he has a rifle.”
Miller described an “eerie moment” when Crooks took the rangefinder and looked through it at the counter-sniper positions. “And one of the counter-sniper positions is looking at him through the scope. At this point, there’s not a gun in the picture, as I understand it, but they’re saying, ‘He’s looking at us looking at him,’” Miller said.
Miller also noted that Crooks’ car contained “two remote-controlled IEDs, remote-control bombs, in the car.” He added: “The remote control for those devices found on his person on the roof,” he said, adding that authorities also found “three fully loaded magazines with nearly 100 rounds [and] a bulletproof vest.” He then posed a question: “So it raises the question: Did he expect to escape from this? And if so, what was all that intended for?”
Earlier in the day on Saturday, reports said Crooks bought a five-foot ladder from a local home improvement store and that he used it to climb onto the roof where he eventually fired at Trump. But ABC News reported on Wednesday that the FBI does not believe the ladder played a factor in the attack and that it was not found at the scene.
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