Timeline:
5:09pm suspect spotted by local cops. Identified as a person of interest.
5:30 spotted with a golf rangefinder
5:51 PA State cops tell Secret Service (S.S.) about suspicious person
5:52 Crooks spotted on roof by S.S.
5:53 S.S. notifies snipers
6:02 Trump on stage
6:09 people outside the secure area spot shooter on roof
6:11 Crooks takes his first shot - sniper kills Crooks 26 seconds after Crooks fires his first shot
Reports that Crooks posted a message on a gaming platform foreshadowing his shooting may turn out to be false. The FBI now believes the account on Steam in Crooks' name that posted "July 13 will be my premiere, watch as it unfolds," is fake.
Sheriff Michael Slupe, Butler County said "the deputies under my control did their job and went above and beyond after the shooting stopped and the chaos began."
Local police told the S.S. before the event they could not provide enough cops to cover all the buildings.
S.S. asked for a cop car to be stationed at the building. The request was denied.
Officers were stationed inside the complex of buildings that Crooks climbed onto, but the cops missed seeing him.
Crooks climbed onto the roof using the air conditioning units.
Police confirm the bike and backpack found after the shooting belong to Crooks.
Female Secret Service agents have been criticized for their actions right after the shooting. Some, including Donald Trump Jr. criticize one female agent for having difficulty putting her gun back in her holster. Fox News critics say the female agents looked panicked and not composed compared to the male agents. People have said the female agents were too short to shield Trump from bullets.
There was an FBI briefing on the evening of July 17.
Secret Service director was 'chased out' of Republican Nat. Convention by GOP members questioning her.
School guidance counselor says Crooks was a very good student who only missed one day of class during last year of high school.
Other students teased Crooks and called him a school shooter.
New video captures Crooks in the distance an hour before the shooting, walking all around the building he later climbed up on.
Crooks visited the site twice after the event was announced on July 3.
GOP senator Mike Lee says Crooks was identified as suspicious 19 minutes before the shooting.
It was a sniper from a local tactical team deployed to assist the U.S. Secret Service at the rally who saw Crooks looking through a rangefinder and took a picture of the gunman and immediately radioed to the command post
Feds identify Crooks as "an apparent lone attacker" who was a politically motivated homegrown domestic violent extremist.
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Dept. of Homeland Security's inspector general opens investigation into rally planning, and President Biden said he is directing an independent review to determine what went wrong.
Senator John Barrasso confronts Secret Service director at Republican National Convention, demands a "resignation or full explanation" from Cheatle.
Barrasso references phone briefing of senators by Cheatle earlier in the day. Later, senators expressed frustration that the call included no pertinent information and was cut off after only a few questions.
Barrasso: "We didn't get any of the responses that were necessary from you,"
Cheatle agreed to testify before the House Oversight Committee hearing on July 22
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Crooks used 2 cell phones to search about Trump appearances and the dates of the Rep. National convention, and the Democratic National Convention. He searched for images of Trump and Biden. Crooks also searched FBI Director Christopher Wray, Attorney General Merrick Garland, members of the British Royal Family. He also had photos on his phone of Rudy Guliani, House Minority leader Hakeem Jeffries, and House Speaker Mike Johnson.
He searched about major depression disorder and treatment. But he was not officially diagnosed with any disorder. (his parents are both social workers)
There still no indication of motive, ideology or political views.
FBI Director Christopher Wray told Congress on Wednesday that more than 200 interviews have been done during the investigation so far, and over 14,000 images have been reviewed. Law enforcement still has not determined a motive for the shooting.
The two men who were wounded in the Trump shooting were upgraded on Wednesday from critical to serious condition. Both James Copenhaver, 74, and David Dutch, 57, are patients at Allegheny General Hospital.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell calls for "new leadership at the Secret Service" "the nation deserves answers and accountability" and a change in leadership at Secret Service would be "an important step in that direction."
House Speaker Mike Johnson plans to call for Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle to resign. He plans to set the task force on Monday. It will work as a "precision strike," able to move quickly by avoiding some procedural hurdles that other investigatory avenues face in Congress. It would be a bipartisan task force, made up of both Republicans and Democrats.
Local police told the Secret Service in a preplanning meeting a week before the rally that they did not have the manpower to place a patrol car outside the building where Crooks shot from. Local police instead planned to secure the building with police personnel and tactical teams.
CBS news analysis of video and satellite imagery shows a tree may have prevented one of the sniper teams tasked with protecting Trump from seeing the gunman.
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The tree, located between the gunman and the sniper team closest to him, may have impaired the team's line of sight as the gunman climbed onto the roof. That team was located on the other side of the former president and was initially directed in another way, so the snipers had to reorient themselves before taking down the gunman.
Cops recovered three fully loaded magazines from the rally Saturday. The magazines belonged to the gunman. It's not clear if the magazines were found on the gunman's body or in his vehicle.
It is still unclear why Crooks shot Trump. The FBI has cracked into his phone, scoured his computer, home and car, and interviewed more than 200 people as they search for answers.
The gunman appears to have been an intelligent loner with few friends, an apparently thin social media platform and no hints of strong political beliefs. He was described by former classmates from high school as smart but standoffish, often seen wearing headphones, sitting alone at lunch, looking at his phone. "He sat by himself, didn't talk to anyone, didn't even try to make conversation," "He was an odd kid,"
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On July 3, 2024, it was announced that Trump would hold a rally on July 13, near Butler Pennsylvania.
U.S. Representative Mike Kelly said he had contacted the Trump campaign to recommend holding the rally in an area that could handle a larger crowd than the Butler Farm Show Grounds, and their response was, "We appreciate your input but we've already made up our minds"
Attendees at Trump's rallies are screened for prohibited items, including weapons. The Secret Service routinely screens and monitors nearby buildings and businesses, including structures outside security perimeters. Four separate counter-sniper teams were assigned to the event, two from the Secret Service and two from local law enforcement.
The Secret Service had increased the size of Trump's security detail several weeks ago because of intelligence indicating that Iran was plotting to assassinate Trump.
On the day of the assassination attempt, Thomas Matthew Crooks borrowed his father's rifle—a DPMS Panther Arms-produced AR-15–style rifle with a 16" barrel (32" total length), chambered in 5.56×45mm NATO, effective at the range of the shooting (148 yards). Crooks told his father he was going to the range to practice shooting.
Crooks purchased a five-foot (1.5-meter) ladder and 50 more rounds of ammo before driving to the site of the rally with two remotely operated explosive devices in the trunk of his car. He still had the receipt for the ladder in his pocket when he was killed.
He climbed onto the roof of a building around 400 feet (120 meters) north of the venue stage through an air conditioning unit. Crooks did not undergo security screening, as his rooftop location was outside the Secret Service's security perimeter for the rally.
Local cops were assigned responsibility for securing the building from where Crooks shot Trump. (The local PD says they were not responsible for securing this location)
Crooks was first noticed by police 3 hours before the shooting. He passed through the magnetometers with a rangefinder (used by hunters to determine the distance to prey), causing the cops to determine he was suspcious. A police officer saw Crooks and reported him, and took his photograph. This is the first photo everybody started sharing of Crooks, hours after the shooting, taken from above and behind, in the grey shirt, with his head turned to the left side.
The police officer saw him 'scoping out' the roof and carrying a range finder. A cop approached Crooks, but he backed up into the crowd, out of sight.
An officer searched for Crooks but did not find him. Multiple local law enforcement officers identified Crooks and believed that he might have been acting suspiciously near the event's magnetometers; they expressed their suspicions over the radio, and their radio communications were available to the Secret Service.
People attending the rally noticed Crooks pacing and acting strangely. The counter snipers noticed him looking at them through this rangefinder, but he had no gun with him at that time. But then he left the area. He went outside the outer perimiter, and it's believed he got the gun from his car at that time.
How did he carry the gun without it being very visible? Police found a bicycle and a backpack left after the shooting, that they believe belonged to Crooks.
At 5:45 p.m., a member of the Beaver County Emergency Services Unit tactical team saw Crooks on a roof, notified other security services, and photographed Crooks.
Several bystanders also witnessed a man carrying a rifle on the rooftop and alerted the police about him nearly a minute and a half before shots were fired at Trump.
A Butler Township police officer attempted to climb to the roof of the building in search of Crooks, hoisted by another officer. Crooks spotted the officer while the officer's hands were clinging to the edge of the roof and aimed his rifle at the officer, at which point the officer let go, falling 8 feet (2.4 m) to the ground and severely injuring his ankle. The cops then contacted the Secret Service. 86 seconds later, Crooks fired his first of 8 shots.
Trump arrived onstage at the rally at about 6:03 p.m. Eight minutes into his speech, at approximately 6:11 p.m., Crooks fired eight shots. He was then shot and killed by a Secret Service sniper.
At about 11 pm, 5 hours after the shooting, Crooks father phoned police and told them his son hadn't come home, and had a rifle with him. That call, and tracing the rifle, preliminarily identified him to the FBI.
The building that Crooks shot from was a staging area for local police. Three police snipers were inside the building, but none were present on the roof or able to cover it. This was attributed to "extremely poor planning" and manpower shortages.
The Secret Security director said the decision was made to not put police on the roof because it was sloped. But the Secret Service snipers that shot Crooks were on another roof that was more steeply sloped than the roof that Crooks was on.
Dep. of Homeland Securty secretary admitted "mistakes were made."
The Secret Service disputed claims that it did not provide requested extra protection for Trump.
President Biden ordered an independent review on the federal security provided by the Secret Service in order to comprehend how the gunman got so close to assassinating Trump. The findings of this review will be made public.
House speaker Mike Johnson says congress will investigate: he says "Pretty clearly there was a security lapse. ... Why were drones not used in the area?"
The shooting has also set off a wave of finger-pointing across multiple law enforcement agencies as to who was responsible for securing the building the gunman used. The Secret Service has blamed local authorities, without naming specific agencies.
The Secret Service has said it was responsible for securing an inner perimeter. But the building was part of the outer perimeter and therefore left to local authorities to protect.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was approved to receive Secret Service protection two days after the Trump shooting. Kennedy had previously sought protection from the Secret Service but was denied.
He worked in the kitchen of an old age home, preparing food.
He passed a background check to get his job.
He told his boss at work and said he needed Saturday off.
Crooks was not on any list of people threatening the ex-president.
Both of his parents worked as licensed professional counselors. They are social workers.
The day before the shooting, Crooks went to a shooting range near where he lived where he was a member to practice.
He had 3 full magazines with nearly 100 rounds.
He was wearing a bulletproof vest.
A review of Crooks' shipping history has also raised some eyebrows. In recent months, some packages delivered to Crooks were marked for possibly containing hazardous material.
Two remote control bombs were found in his car and a simlar device in his home. These had wires coming out of a box with a receiver, and Crooks had a transmitter/controller with him.
Did Crooks plan to detonate a remote control bomb to distract police, if he decided he needed to? Was he going to blow up the bombs in his car after the shooting to cause chaos to help him get away?
There were pro-Trump signs in front of Crooks house.
Over 12 firearms were in the Crooks home, legally owned.
FBI has how searched Crooks cell phone and laptop computer, and found VERY little. Practically nothing.
He had almost no social media presence. There is still no clue about his motive.
Public records have not given any good indication of his views; his political activities have seemingly showcased diverging and internally contradicting beliefs, with no known posts on social media websites or writings indicating his ideology.
Commentators say we may never know his motives.
Crooks was bullied at school and sat alone at lunch time. Other students mocked him for the clothes he wore, which included hunting outfits and because he wore face masks. He was a quiet loner. He was bullied almost every day. He was just a outcast.
Students didn't recall Crooks having friends, playing sports or being involved in any student groups while attending high school.
He had no known criminal record, and the FBI say there was no indication he had mental health problems.
His voter registration was active since September 2021, the month he turned 18, and his party registration was Republican. He had only voted in the 2022 midterm elections.
On January 20, 2021, at the age of 17, he donated $15 to the Progressive Turnout Project, a liberal voter turnout group, through the Democratic Party donation platform ActBlue. His donation was made the same day President Joe Biden was sworn into office. According to the Progressive Turnout Project, he made the donation in response to an e-mail about "tuning into" the inauguration and was unsubscribed from the group's mailing list in 2022.
He briefly appeared in a 2022 advertisement for the investment firm BlackRock that was filmed at his high school; BlackRock pulled the ad from circulation after the attempted assassination.
FBI/DHS security bulletin has warned about retaliatory violence.
The man in the audience who died was said to be trying to shield his family from the shots when he was shot and killed.
He was a firefighter. Flags in Pennsylvania have been lowered to half staff to honor him.
Biden phoned Trump the night of the shooting to offer his condolences.
Biden asked the Secret Service to review all security measures for the Republican National Convention.
Security has been stepped up around Trump properties, like Trump Tower, with more visible police presence.
Multiple security professionals are 'shocked,' 'astounded' that the shooter got so close to Trump.
FBI says Crooks acted alone.
His school records showed no disciplinary, student conduct or security-related incidents.
He graduated high school in 2022.
He graduated college in May 2024 with an associate degree in engineering science. He was accepted into the U. of Pittsburgh for fall 2024, but decided not to attend.
He had a membership for at least a year at a local shooting club.
Crooks did not make the Bethel Park High School varsity rifle team. A classmate said he was a terrible shot. He was laughed at because of his terrible shooting.
Max Smith, who took an American history course with Crooks, told the Philadelphia Inquirer that his former classmate "definitely was conservative".
Mr Smith recalled a mock debate in which they both took part, saying: "The majority of the class were on the liberal side, but Tom, no matter what, always stood his ground on the conservative side."
Crooks' family is cooperating with investigators, according to the FBI. His father bought the gun around 6 months ago.
Police have conducted hundreds of interviews.
Crooks motive is still a mystery.
After police discovered two remote control bombs in Crooks car, they evacuated neighbors around midnight Saturday night from the homes around the Crook house. Police found another bomb in the house.
The two critically wounded people in the audience are now stable. They've been identified.
The shooting is being investigated by the FBI as an act of domestic terrorism.
The shooter was not in any FBI database.
Nobody is suspected of helping him, and nobody is known to have known what he was going to do.
After days of pressure from several Asian American organizations, the New York Post has apologized for initially misidentifying the Trump shooter as a "Chinese man."
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A Joint Intelligence Bulletin put out Monday by the FBI and the Department Homeland Security warning that extremists may carry out attacks they perceive to be in retaliation for the attempted assassination of Donald Trump.
"The FBI and DHS remain concerned about the potential for follow-on or retaliatory acts of violence following this attack, particularly given that individuals in some online communities have threatened, encouraged, or referenced acts of violence in response to the attempted assassination. FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate told reporters Sunday the FBI is seeing increased violence rhetoric online.
