Text messages detailed a more troubling timeline as they revealed how much earlier security was aware of the would-be assassin before the attempt on former President Donald Trump’s life.
“Someone followed our lead and snuck in…”
Since the tragic Butler, Pennsylvania rally, hedged congressional testimony, and excuses have kept the American public from being afforded an answer as to how a suspect had come within centimeters of killing the GOP leader.
As witnesses came forward with their own accounts of alerting the security detail to the threat, text messages obtained by The New York Times showed law enforcement officials spotted 20-year-old Thomas Crooks at least an hour and forty-five minutes before shots were fired.
Without specifying who was communicating in the messages, the Times shared the images that have since begun circulating on social media wherein one local countersniper concluded his shift and alerted his peers to the suspect.
After stating, “Guys I am out. Be safe,” minutes earlier, the officer would go on to write at 4:26 p.m., “Someone followed our lead and snuck in and parked by our cars just so you know.”
The next message read, “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 he’s sitting to the direct right on a picnic table about 50 years from the exit.”
BREAKING: Leaked messages between countersn*pers reveal they were aware of Thomas Crooks about 90 minutes before Trump was nearly assas*inated.
One of the countersn*pers was reportedly leaving at the end of his shift when he noticed Crooks.
“Someone followed our lead and snuck… pic.twitter.com/bma8Pjfnye
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) July 29, 2024
The officer confirmed to The New York Times that the individual he saw was in fact later identified as the would-be assassin who had opened fire at the rally at 6:11 p.m.
Along with redacted messages and a thumbs up, a response read “Roger that” at 4:39 p.m., still over an hour-and-a-half before shots were fired and roughly one hour before earlier reports had indicated law enforcement had seen the suspect.
At 5:38 p.m., photos that had been taken of the would-be assassin accompanied the message, “Kid learning [sic] around building we are in. AGR I believe it is. I did see him with a range finder looking towards stage. FYI. If you wanna notify [Secret Service] snipers to look out. I lost sight of him. Also a bike with backpack sitting next to it in rear of building that was not seen earlier.”
Two minutes later a message read, “Call it in to command and have a uniform check it out.”
In addition to the messages, ABC News conducted an interview with the local SWAT from Beaver County, Pennsylvania where they asserted they had never had a planned “face-to-face” briefing with U.S. Secret Service agents and they had “no communication.”
They were the team positioned in the AGR building that, by their account, left them unable to see the position that the suspect had taken because of where the Secret Service had positioned them.
Lead SWAT sharpshooter says group had ‘no communication’ with Secret Service prior to Trump rally attack https://t.co/kNYRY3GuwO
— American Wire News (@americanwire_) July 29, 2024
Meanwhile, FBI Director Christopher Wray stated in congressional testimony Wednesday that the suspect had flown a drone over the rally two hours prior to the attempt on Trump’s life and a review of his Internet activity showed the same day he registered to attend the rally, July 6, he had searched online, “how far away was Oswald from Kennedy,” suggesting an even greater window in which law enforcement officials could have acted to prevent the shooting that took the life of Corey Comperatore.
Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
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