Colonel Christopher Paris (L); Rep. Nick Lalota (R)
Pennsylvania State Police Commissioner, Colonel Christopher Paris, announced that not one, but four people are suspected of being involved in a rally for former President Donald Trump in Butler, PA on July 13, 2024.
This information was revealed during congressional hearings after the assassination attempt on the former President.
According to preliminary findings reported by Senator Ron Johnson’s office, local law enforcement had located Crooks nearly an hour before the shooting.
Crooks was first discovered by local law enforcement snipers, who noted suspicious behavior but did not observe a direct threat from a weapon.
According to the timeline provided by local law enforcement:
At 17:10 on July 13, 2024, almost an hour before former President Trump was shot, one of the two local law enforcement snipers (hereafter AGR sniper 1) stationed in the AGR building observed the shooter, Crooks, for the first time. Local law enforcement told Senator Johnson’s office that at the time, even though Crooks did not have a weapon, he appeared suspicious.
At 17:14 AGR sniper 1 took at least two pictures of Crooks (one of the pictures appears to show Crooks on the phone).
Source: Early discovery/Ron Johnson
At 17:28, AGR 1 sniper took pictures of a bicycle and a backpack near the AGR building (it is not clear if these items are related to Crooks).
Source: Early discovery/Ron Johnson
At 5:32pm, AGR sniper 1 saw Crooks again near the AGR building apparently looking at the news feed on his phone and holding some finder, according to information reported to Senator Johnson’s office. Soon after, AGR 1 sniper reported the suspect to the text of another law enforcement sniper group at the site and was instructed to report the suspect to command.
At 5:41pm AGR sniper 1 called to report a suspect and described the suspect’s appearance and noted that he had a range finder. At 5:45pm AGR sniper 1 texted Beaver ESU Group Command about the suspect and instructed them to send a message to the command. At 5:59 p.m., Beaver County law enforcement operators received confirmation from the Butler County SWAT commander that the command, including the Secret Service, was aware of the message and requested more information on the suspect’s location.
Until recently, there were public reports that “a counter sniper alerted the Secret Service about 20 minutes before the gunman opened fire” at the rally.7 Information obtained by Senator Johnson’s office appeared to confirm the report but increased more questions about what the Secret Service did with this information, why the Secret Service did not immediately send an agent to the AGR building, and, perhaps most importantly, why former President Trump was allowed to go on stage.
During Tuesday’s congressional hearing, Representative Nick Lalota (R-NY) asked Colonel Paris about the chain of events.
Rep Lalota: Colonel Paris, are you the Commissioner of the Pennsylvania State Police Department?
Colonel Paris: Yes sir, I am.
Rep Lalota: And it’s your testimony, sir, that it was about 25 minutes before the first shots were fired, that local law enforcement officers identified Crooks as a suspect?
Colonel Paris: Injih sir. He stood out because he never entered the place.
Rep Lalota: Were there other people in the crowd that law enforcement considered suspicious?
Colonel Paris: Yes, there are a number of people identified as suspicious, which is consistent with normal operations for details like this.
Rep Lalota: Can we take it as a single-digit number from someone else?
Colonel Paris: The number I am talking about is one digit.
Rep Lalota: Are your numbers summarized?
Colonel Paris: I believe I was briefed on three additional individuals.
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