The 20-year-old who shot at former President Donald Trump wrote on a gaming platform that “July 13 will be my premiere,” according to reports.
Authorities said Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire from a nearby rooftop while Trump spoke at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday.
A bullet grazed Trump’s right ear, while one attendee was killed and two others seriously injured, before Crooks was shot dead by Secret Service agents.
Senators were told in a briefing on Wednesday that Crooks left a message on Steam that said “July 13 will be my premiere, watch as it unfolds,” DailyMail.com and Fox News reported.
Donald Trump
Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire from a rooftop while Donald Trump spoke at a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday.
He wrote on a gaming platform that “July 13 will be my premiere,” according to reports.
When investigators reviewed Crooks’ laptop, they found searches in July for Trump, President Joe Biden, the Democratic National Convention and the Trump rally on July 13, the outlets reported.
“Investigators have found no evidence of a particular ideology, which the FBI believes is notable, and nobody in interviews reported Crooks discussing politics,” Fox News’ Jacqui Heinrich wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
Senators were also told Crooks was identified as a possible threat an hour before he began shooting, The Associated Press reported, citing multiple sources familiar with the briefing.
He was spotted with the rangefinder about 40 minutes before the shooting, and seen again looking through the rangefinder about 20 minutes before the shooting.
“This was a 100 percent cover-your-a** briefing,” Senator John Barrasso, a Republican, said in a statement posted on X.
“He was identified as being suspicious one hour before the shooting. He had a range finder and a backpack. The Secret Service lost sight of him. No one has taken responsibility. No one has been held responsible… the head of the Secret Service needs to go.”
Calls for Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle to resign intensified on Wednesday, with a group of Republicans confronting her at the Republican National Convention.
The House Oversight and Accountabilit Committee issued a subpoena on Wednesday compelling Cheatle to appear at the first congressional hearing into the attempted assassination of Trump on Monday.
Cheatle has said the shooting was “unacceptable” and “something that shouldn’t happen again,” but insisted she would not resign.
In an interview with ABC News, she said it is her responsibility to investigate what went wrong.
“The buck stops with me,” she said. “I am the director of the Secret Service, and I need to make sure that we are performing a review and that we are giving resources to our personnel as necessary.”