Baltimore (WBFF) — We focus more on the moves 20-year-old Thomas Crooks made before, federal investigators say, attempting to assassinate former President Donald Trump.
Investigators say Crooks filmed the Butler Township-Pennsylvania protest twice, in addition to the day of the shooting on Saturday.
The new facts about Crooks revealed to House lawmakers Wednesday a telephone briefing with the Secret Service and the FBI.
In between the discussions, Crooks first raised suspicions about the pickup location about 3 hours before the shooting. This happened when he passed magnetometers supplied with a rangefinder, binocular-type devices used by hunters or marksmen.
Daniel Brunner, a retired FBI special agent who now runs a security and forensic accounting firm in Montana, explains why law enforcement didn’t arrest Crooks simply when they spotted him on the rangefinder.
“In itself, if (Crooks) walks around with a rangefinder, in this country he’s completely free to walk around with a rangefinder in his pocket,” Brunner said.
The criminals’ movements also aroused the suspicions of others that day, including Mike Difrischia, the guy who caught the suspect pointing at the ceiling that day.
But Difrischia says Crooks beat him and his spouse long before she saw him on the roof. They heard a noise.
“When we took a few steps back to see exactly what was going on and we saw the shooter on the back of the roof looking to slowly move towards the roof,” Difrischia said.
Then the fear increased.
“Maybe a minute passed, probably less than a minute, someone started yelling that the guy on the roof has a gun, he has a gun. And then, without delay, my spouse started yelling at the police saying this guy had a gun. “Difrischia said. Maybe I saw him obviously with an AR-style rifle and yes, he got very agitated from there. I knew this guy was getting ready to shoot into the meeting,” he added.
“What we want to perceive here is that the secret service acted in an exemplary manner and, of course, there were errors and those errors are going to be investigated,” Brunner said.
Investigators said they held the suspect’s cell phone, hoping that what they found when examining the phone would give them insight into a motive, but so far, they have not publicly revealed what that motive might be.