Bombshell Text Messages Reveal Law Enforcement Were Tracking Trump Shooter 90 Minutes Before Shooting

Text messages from local law enforcement officers in charge of securing Trump’s rally in Butler, PA, reveal that some officers raised concerns over the shooter’s presence over 90 minutes before he shot President Trump and several rallygoers.

In text messages in a group chat, an officer wrote, “Kid learning around building we are in.”

The text continues, ” I saw him with a range finder looking towards stage.”

“If you wanna notify SS [Secret Service] snipers to look out. I lost sight of him,” added the officer.

Take a look:

🚨🇺🇸COUNTERSNIPER TEAM SPOTTED TRUMP SHOOTER 90 MINUTES BEFORE ATTACK

According to leaked messages obtained by the New York Times, counter sniper teams were aware of Thomas Crooks, the man who attempted to assassinate Trump, approximately 90 minutes before the incident.

The… pic.twitter.com/L0PB48RsBA

— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) July 29, 2024

Per CNN:

Text messages between law enforcement before the assassination attemptagainst Donald Trump earlier this month suggest that some officers raised the shooter’s presence at the rally more than 90 minutes before he climbed onto a roof and fired eight rounds at the former president.

In text messages obtained by Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley from the Beaver County Emergency Unit, a local countersniper first raised with his colleagues that he saw someone park near their vehicles and sit on a nearby picnic table at 4:26 p.m.

According to the messages, which were first reported by The New York Times, local law enforcement later took a picture of the same man, who turned out to be the shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, and sent it to other officers in a group chat nearly 30 minutes before Crooks would shoot at Trump at the Butler, Pennsylvania, rally.

“Kid learning around building we are in,” one texts reads. “I did see him with a range finder looking towards stage. FYI. If you wanna notify SS [Secret Service] snipers to look out. I lost sight of him.”

Questions remain over how local law enforcement failed, after spotting Crooks previously, to stop the shooter from climbing up the side of a nearby building and coming so close to killing a former president and current Republican nominee. It’s also unclear how the Secret Service designated security that day and who managed the communication between local and federal law enforcement.

Officers were texting each other about the gunman who tried to assassinate Donald Trump 90 minutes before he opened fire, but none of them approached the gunman, new text messages reveal. https://t.co/oGmVF02Y6n

— Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) July 29, 2024

Here’s what Fox News reported:

Text messages revealed that law enforcementresponsible for monitoring former President Trump’s Pennsylvania rally spotted his would-be assassin and flagged him to colleagues as suspicious at least 90 minutes before he opened fire.

The messages, obtained by Fox News Digital from Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, who obtained them from Beaver County Emergency Services Unit, showed that officers flagged 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks after he was spotted using a range finder – but did not approach him.

The first screenshot is a group chat of Beaver ESU officers, while the second is from one Beaver County sniper departing his shift at around 4:30 – approximately an hour-and-a-half before Trump took the stage. The New York Times first reported the text screenshots.

In a group chat, around 4:36 p.m., when one of the officers texted that his shift was ending, he warned that a man, later identified as Crooks, had parked nearby their vehicle.

“Someone followed our lead and snuck in and parked by our cars just so you know,” the text from an officer read.