Thomas Crooks asked his boss for the day off, telling him he had “something to do,” before traveling to Donald Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday and shooting the former president.
The suspected killer told his colleagues at Bethel Park Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Center that he would see them on Sunday.
But a Secret Service agent present at Butler’s rally made sure he would be the last person Crooks would see as he stared down the assassin before shooting and killing him.
Officers caught him in their sights and one pulled the trigger seconds after the 20-year-old shot and killed Pennsylvania Fire Chief Corey Comperatore, critically wounded two others and struck Trump in the right ear after scaling a building 147 yards away.
“They were watching him while he was watching them,” a senior federal law enforcement official told CNN.
Law enforcement personnel stand over the body of Thomas Matthews Crooks on a rooftop near the Trump rally on Saturday
As Trump raised his fist toward the crowd, some could be heard cheering his name and chanting “USA” and “Make America Great Again.”
The graphic video shows Crooks staring through the scope of his father’s AR-style weapon and firing toward the protest as onlookers shout from the base of the building.
A second burst of gunfire is instantly heard and Crooks is seen lying dead on the roof as those on the ground gasp in horror.
“The Secret Service doesn’t mess around, man,” one exclaims. “Shit!”
It emerged Tuesday that the gunman had breached the protest’s security zone three hours before carrying out his attack, after driving 50 miles north from his home in Bethel Park, on the southern outskirts of Pittsburgh.
At 3 p.m., he set off a metal detector when he tried to enter the premises and was found to be carrying a rangefinder, a gun sight typically used by hunters and shooters preparing to shoot from a distance.
But security officers allowed him to enter while keeping him under surveillance until he left the secure area a short time later, the official said.
He then disappeared from the radar until shortly before 5:45 p.m., when a Beaver County Sheriff’s Department officer spotted him acting suspiciously near the outer perimeter and took his photograph.
On Monday it emerged that a police sniper team was stationed in the same single-storey AGR International building that Crooks decided to use for the shooting, and that he was seen outside three times in the minutes leading up to the attack.
A law enforcement official told CBS that no action was taken after one of the snipers first spotted Crooks looking up at the roof of the building.
The 20-year-old suspected killer was repeatedly spotted and photographed by police officers before he scaled his building and opened fire.
Police snipers returned fire after shots were fired as Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump was speaking at a campaign event.
Crooks’ father, Matthew, opened the door to several FBI personnel who entered the modest brick home shortly before 10 a.m. Tuesday.
The gunman disappeared around a corner before he was spotted a second time, sitting up and looking at his phone, prompting one of the snipers to take a photo of him.
The sniper then radioed a command post after seeing Crooks pull out his rangefinder.
But no further action was taken before Crooks reappeared for a third time, this time carrying a backpack and disappearing from sight as he walked to the back of the building.
The sniper team radioed in another report with the same information, but they did not realize that Crooks was climbing their building.
He climbed onto the building’s air conditioning system and soared to the roof, where MAGA fans spotted him “bear-crawling” along the sloping surface with his rifle, and warned law enforcement of the danger.
“I was like, ‘Why is Trump still talking? Why hasn’t he been taken off the stage?'” one witness told the BBC. “The next thing I knew, five shots rang out.”
Crooks was a nutritional assistant at Bethel Park Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, where she provided food and care to elderly and post-hospitalized patients.
“We are shocked and saddened to learn of his involvement, as Thomas Matthew Crooks performed his job without concern and his background check was clean,” Trustee Marcie Grimm said in a statement.
A colleague at the centre said Crooks never expressed political views at work and was not a “radical”.
“It’s hard to see everything that’s going on online because he was a very, very good person who did something very bad, and I wish I knew why,” she added.
The alleged killer was a registered Republican and a 2022 high school graduate. Records show he donated on Inauguration Day 2020 to a progressive group backing President Joe Biden.
Trump grabbed his right ear as the first shots rang out at 6:12 p.m.
A timeline showing the dramatic events that took place on July 13.
He graduated from the Community College of Allegheny County in May with an associate of science degree in engineering, according to school officials who said they were “shocked and saddened by the horrific turn of events.”
Crooks’ father, Matthew, was seen Tuesday morning for the first time since the shooting when he opened the door of the family home to FBI agents.
A neighbor of Crooks’ sister, Katie, said her brother helped her move into her nearby apartment three years ago, describing her as a “hardworking” woman who worked as a janitor at a local high school and as a waitress at a restaurant.
Both of Crooks’ parents are behavioral therapists and Crooks’ father said he was baffled by his son’s actions.
Investigators have yet to uncover a motive for the killing of Crooks, who had a minimal social media presence.
But a bulletproof vest, three fully loaded magazines containing about 100 rounds and two remote-controlled explosive devices were found in Crooks’ car after the shooting, it emerged Tuesday.
The news raised concerns that Crooks may have planned to continue his killing spree had he escaped the roof alive.
Another bulletproof vest and another remote-controlled bomb were discovered in the house he shared with his parents.
The Justice Department, Secret Service and FBI are expected to brief senators on the shooting investigation that Majority Leader Chuck Schumer revealed Tuesday night as the Secret Service faces intense scrutiny over its handling of security at the rally.
From the “normal kid” who liked to play soldiers and mini-golf, to the increasingly disturbed young man who grew his hair long and isolated himself from his friends.
Crooks, known as Tom to his family, grew up in the suburb of Bethel Park, where his family still lives with his parents and older sister; the family home is seen here.
Republican officials meeting in Milwaukee have been calling for tighter scrutiny of the agency, even as the feds are implementing tighter security measures around Trump and other protégés.
“Someone, somewhere, has a lot of serious questions to answer,” House Judiciary and Gun Committee member Kelly Armstrong of North Dakota told DailyMail.com.
The investigation launched by President Joe Biden after the incident is being overseen by the Justice Department, not Homeland Security, which oversees the Secret Service.
“That says a lot,” said former House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. Jason Chaffetz.