(UPDATED) Timeline of Trump Assassination Attempt
Including tick tock accounts from whistleblower
This information is based on the latest publicly-available information at the time of publication and is subject to change. Times are approximate.
Two years prior to the shooting:
Former President Donald Trump’s security detail complained they were not being given enough resources and personnel by the Secret Service.
Saturday July 6:
Suspected shooter Thomas Crooks is believed to visit the Butler, Pennsylvania rally site.
Crooks conducts a Google search for “how far away was Oswald from Kennedy.”
Thursday, July 11:
Gunman Thomas Crooks is identified as a person of interest.
Friday, July 12:
Crooks practices at a shooting range.
Saturday July 13:
Crooks buys a five-foot ladder at The Home Depot, and 50 rounds of ammunition from a gun store.
Crooks drives his car, with an explosive device in the trunk and wired to a transmitter, an hour north to the Trump rally in Butler, Penn.
Crook visits the rally site for about an hour in the morning.
Crooks is “able to fly a drone and get aerial footage of the Pennsylvania fairgrounds shortly before the former president was set to speak there.”
Crooks uses a bike to scout the rally grounds, unimpeded.
9am:
Butler County Emergency Services (Butler ESU) provides a security briefing for the local SWAT teams and police assigned to the rally. Secret Service does not attend. During the briefing, Butler ESU provides images of the outside security perimeter that local law enforcement is responsible for. The images do not include the American Glass Research (AGR) building the shooter, Thomas Crooks, climbed.
10:30am: Local police tasked with guarding the perimeter of the rally site are stationed in the AGR building on the second floor, noticed suspicious character. This is the building Crooks climbs to shoot Trump.
1:30pm: Crooks buys ammunition.
3:50pm: Crooks is back at the rally site. He flies a drone about 200 yards from the stage for about 11 minutes, getting a “rearview mirror” of the scene behind him and a better assessment of the angle toward the podium.
4:25pm: Local law enforcement texts alert one another that "someone followed our lead and snuck in."
5pm: Crooks is identified by authorities as a person of interest. He was flagged as acting suspiciously near a screening entrance.
5:10pm: One of two local law enforcement snipers in the AGR building sees Crooks, who seems “suspicious.”
5:14pm: One of the local law enforcement snipers takes at least two photos of crooks. (One of the pictures appears to show Crooks on his phone).
5:28pm: The same police sniper photographs a bicycle and a backpack nearby.
5:32pm: The same police sniper sees Crooks again near the building apparently looking at news feeds on his phone and holding a range finder. Shortly after, the sniper reports the suspect to a group text of other law enforcement snipers on site, and is instructed to report the suspect to “command.”
5:41pm: The same police sniper calls into “command” to report the suspect, and describes the suspect’s appearance, and notes that he has a range finder.
5:45pm: The same police sniper texts the Beaver Emergency Services Group Command about the suspect and instructs them to relay the message to “command,” which includes Secret Service.
5:52pm: Secret Service snipers spot Crooks on the roof.
5:59pm: A Beaver County law enforcement operator receives confirmation from a Butler County SWAT commander that “command,” which includes Secret Service, has been made aware of the messages, and requested more information about the suspect’s location. Trump is not warned or warded off taking the stage.
Law enforcement “loses track” of Crooks.
At some point around this time, Crooks uses an air conditioning unit (or ladder) to climb onto the gently-sloped roof of the building with the local police snipers inside. The building has a direct line of sight to Donald Trump’s podium and is only 133 yards away.
6:02pm: Trump takes the stage.
People in the crowd tell officers that a suspicious man has climbed to the roof of the building. Over the course of several minutes, additional people begin alerting police and pointing to Crooks on the roof.
6:11pm:
(12 seconds before the shooting) A police officer walks around the building. People start to run away.
An armed police officer climbs on the roof to confront Crooks but loses his grip or lets go when Crooks turns toward him.
(11 seconds before the shooting) Secret Service “acquires target” but does not shoot.
(5 seconds before the shooting) More people yell about the man on the roof with a gun.
(4 seconds before the shooting) More people spot the shooter and yell “Right here!”
Crooks fires at Trump and continues shooting. It’s been well over an hour since Crooks was first identified on site as a suspicious person.
According to one report, at least one local police authority shoots at Crooks. No word on how many times, or whether any of the shots hit Crooks.
(26 seconds after first shot) Secret Service sniper shoots Crooks.
Law enforcement tries to get access to a drone to secure a nearby water tower.
Shortly after the shooting, a man in a gray suit climbs the ladder to the building and instructs local police there to send photos of the shooting to a particular text number, which they did. The text number may belong to an Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms official.
Tuesday, July 17:
Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle tells a reporter that the gently sloped roof provided a safety hazard to Secret Service snipers, and so none were placed on the building as part of the rally’s security plan.
Saturday July 20:
(From CNN) A spokesperson for the Secret Service says in a statement that the agency has not provided certain resources in the past, but has instead provided other security measures including from local partners. A Secret Service official tells CNN that examples of these alternatives included having local sniper teams in place when the Secret Service could not provide their own, or having hand-held magnetometers and other measures established at certain events where larger, walk-through magnetometers weren’t available. However, the Secret Service denies security was short on the day of the rally.
Monday July 22:
Cheatle testifies to House Oversight Committee.
Tuesday July 23:
Cheatle resigns.
Sharyl: I’m a former FBI Intel Analyst and retired Army Lieutenant Colonel branched Military Intelligence / Counterintelligence and have formed an assessment regarding the assassin I’d like you to read. This assessment is based on numerous OSINT reports of all varieties I’ve examined over the last 48 hours:
BLUF: I assess with high confidence Thomas Matthew Crooks was leading a “double life” which allowed him to operate in a manner conducive for planning then executing the assassination of the former president while maintaining (for outward appearances), all the characteristics/pattern of life behaviors he was known for, particularly when he was in the presence of family members, friends, and/or other associates who might become worried, overly inquisitive, or even somewhat alarmed if his personality, daily habits, and/or established routines underwent noticeable change.
Furthermore, it’s very likely Crooks visited the Trump rally site on more than one occasion prior to the event. During one of these visits he stashed/concealed a semiautomatic rifle (AR-15) in close proximity to the rooftop sniper position he would later occupy. The lack of reporting, eyewitness or otherwise, of his whereabouts just before the shooting began indicates he remained fairly inconspicuous until he scaled the roof and started “bear crawling” to his firing position. His movements were deliberate, likely rehearsed and he never attracted unwanted attention to himself until after he was exposed on the roof mere moments before the shooting began. His clothing was ordinary, gray in color, and he didn’t wear a hat. He carried no identification on his person, likely because he knew he was going to die in place. He covered his physical, digital, and electronic footprints/tracks extremely well, and for lengthy periods of time, likely months. The FBI is going to have trouble piecing this all together because it’s looking a lot like the Vegas mass shooter situation from a few years ago, except this young man armed with a high powered rifle somehow managed to get within 150 yards (close range) of a former U.S. president at a site which exhibited a “heavy state and local law enforcement presence” working under the purview of the Secret Service, and in broad daylight while fully exposed on a rooftop that had line of sight to an adjacent counter sniper team, fired multiple shots in the direction of the former president from his AR-15 before he was neutralized. That seems to indicate Crooks acquired some serious skills/training/tradecraft in order to conduct an operation of this nature not to mention his numerous tactical movements leading up to it. Yet somehow an unassuming 20 year old “nerdy looking dude” with no military background, who lived with his parents and liked mathematics, pulled it off all by himself. The Feds definitely have their hands full with this one because Mr. Crooks had a lot more going on than met the eye, and it appears to me he wasn’t so much indoctrinated as he was “cultivated”. If I’m correct, that means there’s more “people” like Thomas Matthew Crooks out there right now.
26 seconds AFTER the first shot. Unconscionable!
You will need to hire at least two staffers to maintain, change, and expand your timeline as the damn story changes, it seems, every five minutes. Keep up your great work.