Text messages and radio chatter released Monday show that law enforcement officers lost sight of Donald Trump’s would-be assassin, Thomas Matthew Crooks, and further illustrate the confused communications around tracking him at the July 13 rally.
According to documents released by Sen. Chuck Grassley’s office, law enforcement officers knew of and raised the shooter’s presence at the rally more than 90 minutes before he climbed onto a roof and fired eight rounds at Trump.
At 5:14 p.m, an officer took photos of Crooks sitting outside. Twenty minutes later he sent those images to a group chat, the texts show.
“Kid learning around building we are in,” one text reads. “I did see him with a range finder looking towards stage. FYI. If you wanna notify SS snipers to look out. I lost sight of him.”
Messages show that 10 minutes later, an officer sends the images to a second group chat and tells the other members to forward it: “if you wanna send this to whoever at command.” Six minutes later, at 5:51 p.m., someone responds: “Sent.”
One of the members of that same group chat also said they had lost track of where the shooter had gone just 15 minutes before the shooting.
“They are asking for a direction of travel,” one person wrote at 5:59 p.m., referring to the command center.
Someone responded a minute later: “Not sure. He was up against the building. If I had to guess towards the back. Away from the event.”
Grassley’s office also released the Beaver County ESU after-action report that contained redacted entries on a timeline that appear to detail the flow of information in the crucial minutes after a local officer first saw a young man later identified as Crooks with a range finder.
The redacted entries reveal the communications as the information is passed up the chain.
This story is breaking and will be updated.
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