Was there a woman shouting for Thomas Crooks to ‘get down’ from the roof just as he opened fire on Donald Trump – and might he have a secret accomplice?
And why is so little known about the would-be assassin in an online age where he shunned all social media networks and platforms apart from a hardly-used Discord account.
The attempted assassination of Mr Trump has shaken the very foundations of the world’s greatest democracy. The former US President was millimetres from death – but turned his head just as Crooks opened fire in Pennsylvania on Saturday.
The former US President admits he is ‘supposed to be dead’ but was saved ‘by luck or by God’. But whatever good grace shone on Mr Trump that day, many mysterious and unanswered questions remain about the attempt on his life – and how it was able to happen.
Witnesses and internet sleuths have pored over the minutiae of what they saw and footage of the attempted assassination. And as the authorities investigate whether he was definitely working alone, one woman was accused of yelling towards Crooks in the seconds before the attack.
Many questions remain over the would-be assassin himself, and his plan.
Especially how on earth he could have spent almost 30 minutes on a roof with a rifle before he opened fire on Trump as he stood around 100 yards away. People nearby had even told police and security services he was up there – but nothing was done and it was a local officer who eventually confronted him.
Very little is still know about loner Crooks, yet in the pre-internet age, a full biography was laid out within 72 hours of Lee Harvey Oswald’s murder of JFK in 1963.
Crooks has no social media profile and the few pictures of him that exist are from yearbooks or short clips of him in school.
1: Who was the woman appearing to yell would-be assassin’s name?
Footage of Thomas Matthew Crooks firing at former President Donald Trump is still emerging all the time.
But one video has picked up audio of an unnamed woman who some believe shouts at the gunman just as he launches the attack, which tragically killed a Trump supporters.
As bullets crack and crowds scream, a woman can be yelling what some say is: ‘Crooks. What are you doing? Get over here. Get down’.
The clip has gone viral on social media.
And while some swear they hear the woman shout ‘Crooks’, others believe she is shouting ‘Ross’.
Whatever the truth, the police and security services in Pennsylvania will certainly be hunting for her, unless they have spoken to her already.
Decide for yourself. Is the woman shouting Crooks – or Ross?
2: Why does 20-year-old Crooks have ZERO social media?
Thomas Matthew Crooks, from Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, was quickly identified as the shooter by the FBI following the shocking incident that took place during a rally in Butler.
It has since emerged through federal campaign finance records that the gunman was a registered Republican who had previously made a $15 donation to the liberal ActBlue political action committee on January 20, 2021 – Biden’s Inauguration Day.
Officials have released no additional information about the shooter. ‘This remains an active and ongoing investigation,’ the FBI said.
Yet investigators have not found any evidence that he had social media profiles. They have found nothing he has written online that would provide a motive for trying to kill Trump.
He does briefly pop up in other Facebook posts from others. Videos are also emerging of him being teased at school.
In one film from his school he is shown coding and explaining it to a fellow student. He also appeared in a TV advert for investment firm BlackRock.
But he was reportedly on social media platform Discord.
A spokesman said the account linked to him ‘was rarely utilized and we have found no evidence that it was used to plan this incident or discuss his political views’.
Fellow students have said that he was bullied – but there had been no explanation about him being a murderous political extremist.
It is also not clear how he ended up with a AR-style rifle. It was allegedly purchased by his father, who has said he is still trying to work out what happened to his son.
And more pertinently – the authorities have yet to inform the public of the motive to kill Trump.
3: Why did the Secret Service rip off Trump’s shoes?
One of the oddities of the aftermath of the assassination attempt was how Donald Trump’s immediate reaction, after grasping at his ear, was for his shoes to be returned.
The former president refused to move until they were back on his feet.
And it is slowly emerging why he was so agitated about it.
Secret Service – who have come under heavy scrutiny for their efforts that day – dived on the former president to insulate and shield him from further gunfire.
Silent for only a short time, Trump told agents: ‘Let me get my shoes, let me get my shoes’ as he got up from the ground.
A new video, posted by WBEN, covers an angle previously unseen amid the chaos from behind Trump as he spoke.
It shows the Secret Service tackling Trump and removing his shoes and tossing them off the stage.
Trump himself has also seen the bizarre side of the incident, confirming what was visible on the video clip in the first interview he gave after the shooting.
‘The agents hit me so hard that my shoes fell off, and my shoes are tight,’ he said.
Trump has praised the speed and strength of his security.
He said he received a bruise on his arm just from a secret service member keeping him on the floor.
‘That’s just from a guy grabbing me,’ Trump said. ‘You know how strong you have to be to do that?’
‘They did a fantastic job,’ he added. ‘It’s surreal for all of us.’
He told the Secret Service he wanted to try and go back to the podium and keep speaking.
‘I wanted to keep speaking – I wanted to keep speaking, but I just got shot. It’s a very surreal experience, and you never know what you’re going to do until a thing like that happens.’
4: Why did the Secret Service allow Crooks to spend 30 minutes on the roof and evade them three times before he fired?
It took seconds for Crooks to be killed by a sniper.
But it took approaching 30 minutes for those meant to be protecting the former president to notice that his would-be murderer had climbed a roof and got into a position just 100 feet from Donald Trump was speaking
The video reveals that it was 43 seconds between the first series of pops heard and a Secret Service agent saying: ‘The shooter is down.’
But despite the speed of the reaction – questions remain over the initial response.
Video from the scene just before the gunfire began shows a man speaking with a local cop and appearing to point to the roof of the building where Crooks was lying in wait.
Other bystanders can be heard directing the officer to that roof top.
A witness told KDKA that the shooting began moments after he told a cop that he’d seen Crooks.
Butler County Sheriff Michael Slupe said an officer with the Butler County Township was hoisted on to the roof where he encountered Crooks.
‘All I know is the officer had both hands on the roof to get up on the roof, never made it because the shooter had turned towards the officer, and rightfully and smartly, the officer let go,’ Slupe said.
Paul Eckloff, a former Secret Service agent who retired in 2020, said agents would have surveyed all the rooftops with a line of sight ahead of time.
‘This person either concealed themselves until they became a threat, or were not a threat until they revealed their weapons,’ said Eckloff.
The building that Crooks shot from was identified as a security risk so it’s not clear as to why it wasn’t properly secured, according to a report from NBC News.
‘Someone should have been on the roof or securing the building so no one could get on the roof,’ a former Secret Service agent told the network. The rooftop was well-within the range of someone with AR-15 style gun.
Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said that the agency worked with local law enforcement to secure the area and that securing the perimeter was the responsibility of the Butler Township Police Department and the Butler County Sheriff’s Office.
Butler County District Attorney Richard Goldlinger disputed this somewhat when speaking to NBC News.
‘They had meetings in the week prior. The Secret Service ran the show. They were the ones who designated who did what. In the command hierarchy, they were top, they were No. 1,’ he said.
‘To me, the whole thing is under the jurisdiction of the Secret Service. And they will delineate from there.’
5: Who was the woman behind Trump and was Crooks acting alone?
A woman who was sitting behind Donald Trump when he survived his assassination attempt has sparked suspicion over her strange behavior.
Footage showing the unidentified woman — wearing sunglasses, a white shirt and a black hat — pulling out her phone as shots rang out at the Pennsylvania rally on Saturday has gone viral.
She did so while everyone else — including Trump — ducked down to the ground, in fear for their lives.
One post on X, asking people to ‘pay close attention’ to the woman, has been viewed more than 19 million times.
Another viral post reads: ‘Gunshots ring out and her first instinct is to very, very calmly pull out her phone and film the whole spectacle. Does that seem like normal behavior to you?’
It is not known if she has been identified, or whether she has been interviewed by police if found.
Others argued, however, that the woman’s calm demeanor was due to mass shootings being so common in America.
Police are investigating Crooks’ motives – and whether he had any accomplices. But there have been no arrests.