Over an hour before the attempted assassination of Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania rally, local police had identified the shooter, Thomas Crooks, as a suspicious person. They circulated his photograph among law enforcement personnel. Kevin Rojek, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Pittsburgh field office, disclosed this during a briefing about the ongoing investigation.
Rojek explained that a local officer initially photographed Crooks, which was shared with other officers at the rally. Approximately 30 minutes after this, SWAT team members observed Crooks using a rangefinder and accessing news websites on his phone.
Crooks was also spotted with a backpack at 5:56 p.m., just minutes before the shooting, which occurred at 6:08 p.m. He was last seen on a police dashboard camera walking on the roof from where he fired the shots.
While the FBI is not investigating security lapses at the rally, it is assembling a timeline of events. The motive behind Crooks’ actions remains unclear, though he had searched online for information on mass shootings, explosive devices, and a previous assassination attempt in Slovakia.
Despite past criticisms of the FBI, Trump has consented to a standard victim interview to share his perspective on the incident, consistent with the FBI’s procedure for all victims. Rojek confirmed that Trump was hit by a bullet, whether intact or in fragments.
Described by FBI officials as a loner with minimal social interactions beyond his immediate family, Crooks had used encrypted applications to purchase firearms and materials for making explosives. His long-standing interest in science and experimentation, noted by his cooperative parents, had not previously raised suspicions.
