Thomas Matthew Crooks was identified by the FBI as a “person of interest” 62 minutes before he shot Trump, killing one bystander and critically injuring two others, US media reports.
He was later spotted with a range finder and twenty minutes before the shots were fired he was spotted on the roof by Secret Service snipers.
Criticism of the security work around the campaign speech is harsh.
Thomas Matthew Crooks is suspected of arriving at the field in Butler, Pennsylvania, early in the morning. He walked around the grounds for an hour before leaving to return again in the afternoon.
At five o’clock he tried to enter the area but did not get through the security barrier and therefore stayed just outside.
5:10 p.m., just over an hour before he fired the shots at the presidential candidate, he was discovered by the FBI who identified him as a “person of interest”, according to sources for ABC News.
Snipers watched him for 20 minutes
It is not known if anyone kept tabs on him after that, but twenty minutes later he was spotted again by government personnel – then equipped with a range finder.
A logged radio communication reveals that the police were searching for a “suspicious person”.
Meanwhile, Thomas Matthew Crooks climbed onto the roof of a building just outside the security barrier, around 120 meters from the stage. The building was used as an assembly point by the local police task force.
Crooks does not appear to have used the ladder police were able to see he purchased earlier in the day.
And at 5:52 p.m., just minutes before Trump stepped up, he was spotted on the roof by Secret Service snipers.
Shot after 26 seconds
Video clips verified by US media show the snipers retargeting and appearing to aim straight at him in the minutes before the shots.
Still, he was not stopped.
At 18.12 the first shots were fired. One person was killed, two were critically injured, and Trump was shot in the ear before being carried bloodied off the stage.
26 seconds later, Thomas Matthew Crook was dead, shot in the head by a Secret Service sniper.
According to sources to several American newspapers, confusion arose at the Secret Service with Crooks lying on the roof of the local police collection point. It is not clear, but according to the sources, one theory is that the snipers thought he was a police officer.