Thursday, July 18, 2024 - Would-be Donald Trump assassin, Thomas Matthew Crooks wrote a chilling online message that hinted at plans for the day he shot the former president at the Butler, Pennsylvania rally over the weekend.
“July 13 will be my premiere, watch as it unfolds,” the
20-year-old gunman allegedly wrote on Steam, a popular online platform where
gamers communicate, Fox News reported.
The message was revealed to US senators during a briefing by
top law enforcement officials on Wednesday, July 17.
Crooks, 20, also had images of the Trump as well as
President Biden on his cellphone, and searched the dates of the Democratic
National Convention and Trump’s Pennsylvania rally, law enforcement sources
reportedly said.
Investigators are still checking the shooter’s phones and
computer in search of answers to the assassination attempt but have not yet
identified a motive.
WFBI's probe into the gunman’s online search history did not
reveal which side of the political spectrum Crooks, a registered Republican,
was on, the report adds.
Crooks, who was shot dead seconds after firing at the former
president, had two cellphones, a primary device recovered near his body and a
secondary one at his home that had just 27 contacts, according to Fox.
Details of his search history were released as news broke
that 20 minutes passed between the time that Secret Service snipers first
spotted Crooks perched on a roof with a rifle and the time he began firing at
the former president.
The gunfire killed a 50-year-old married dad of two girls in
attendance and injured two other rally-goers.
Multiple law enforcement sources and legislators briefed on
the investigation told ABC, who first broke the news, that snipers saw Crooks
on the roof outside the rally’s security zone at 5:52 p.m. before the shooting
began at 6:12 p.m.
The shocking 20-minute time gap was confirmed secret service
officials who told Congress that at one point, Crooks was reportedly peering
through his rangefinder at the snipers who were looking back at him.
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