Trump’s would-be assassin Thomas Crooks purportedly wrote chilling online post foreshadowing rally shooting: report

New York Post ^ | Published July 18, 2024, 3:08 a.m. | Larry Celona and Allie Griffin

[Zhang Fei]

Would-be Donald Trump assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks purportedly wrote a chilling online message that hinted at his sinister plans for the day he shot up the former president’s Butler, Pa. rally over the weekend.

“July 13 will be my premiere, watch as it unfolds,” the 20-year-old gunman allegedly wrote on Steam, a popular online platform where gamers communicate, Fox News reported. Investigators are currently working to determine whether the posting is legitimate.

The foreshadowing was revealed to US senators during a briefing by top law enforcement officials Wednesday.

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TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Extended News; News/Current Events; US: Pennsylvania
KEYWORDS: 202407; 20240713; alliegriffin; assassination; assassinationattempt; assassinationplots; bombs; crooks; detonator; larrycelona; lorawireless; pa; premiere; steam; thomasmatthewcrooks; trump; trumprally

[Zhang Fei]

The kid was canny, with an understanding of police rules of engagement, taking care to wait until the last minute or so before shouldering the long arm. Up until then, if apprehended, he would likely, at worst, have been brought up on trespassing charges.

Many accounts don’t mention a ladder. I suspect it was leaned against the building after the kid was shot. Defies logic for cops to rely on being boosted to get to the roof if the ladder had been available earlier. At any rate, the latest New York Post article linked here indicates the kid did not use a ladder.

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https://archive.ph/tmaPG
[Ben Maser, who was watching the event from just outside the security perimeter, told The Post that he reported to a police officer twice in the span of two minutes that he had seen a suspicious-looking man on the building roof. Maser, who confirmed that he is visible in the newly surfaced video clip, said he first warned the officer an estimated 30 seconds before the time period captured in the video.
The police officer “didn’t say anything” to Maser in response to either alert, he said. On the first occasion, when Maser saw the man on the roof moving forward in a crouched position, the officer looked in the direction of the building, according to Maser. On the second, when the man was lying down, Maser said that he advised the officer to move to a spot where he would be able to see the man.

“When I turned to go back to that spot is when I heard the gunshots, and then it was just chaos,” said Maser, a 41-year-old welder who lives near the event site.

Maser said he never saw a gun with the man on the roof, and no gun can be seen in the newly surfaced video.]

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Another unremarked upon aspect is the rarity of long arm assassination attempts. IIRC, at the time, JFK was the first and only such attack on a president or presidential candidate. In the 80+ years since, RFK, Wallace, Ford and Reagan were all close-in, as before. So there was reason to think of JFK as a freak occurrence, a lightning strike.

[JSM_Liberty]

“purportedly”
“allegedly”

sounds rock solid

[monkeyshine]

The ladder was well hidden behind large trees so it’s possible if you didn’t peek around the trees you wouldn’t see the ladder.

[Zhang Fei]

There’s been news about how the kid was too bad a shot to be admitted to the school rifle team. He may have wanted to join the team, then set his mind to another, higher endeavor, of joining a more select group of individuals, men like John Wilkes Booth, Lee Harvey Oswald, et al. Would have been unwise to put himself on a watch list by qualifying for the team. He did spend a good amount of time at the local rifle range, though.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-rally-gunman-identified/

The cops weren’t incompetent. They were just up against a smart kid. He got into Pitt Engineering (#45 nationwide). The average SAT score for Pitt Engineering is 1400.

https://i.imgur.com/Po3fbzy.png

Assuming he’s merely average among admits, that puts him in the 95th percentile.

https://www.appily.com/colleges/sat/1400

In other words, he’s smarter than most of the security entourage. It’s like getting a 97 on the ASVAB.

Wars are fought by men barely in their twenties. The would be assassin was a mere 20 years old and slim, hence with the agility to quickly get on that roof after it had been checked and after Trump started speaking. He probably expected to be spotted but though they were looking for him, he was using the slope for concealment until he had a line of sight on Trump. Whereupon Crooks shouldered his rifle, which was previously concealed below the slope, and had mere seconds as his head was skylined on the apex.

He was fearless because he must have known he’d be killed seconds after opening fire from such an exposed position. That gave him an edge over the security professionals who for all their training and equipment were ponderous and thinking of someone pre-placed and firing from inside a building (and hence with a exit plan). Crooks was all different, in there like a rat up a drainpipe and did it knowing he was going to die.

[jjotto]

https://www.theverge.com/2024/7/18/24201220/trump-rally-shooter-steam-warning-thomas-matthew-crooks

[Ezekiel]

“July 13 will be my premiere, watch as it unfolds,” the 20-year-old gunman allegedly wrote on Steam, a popular online platform where gamers communicate, Fox News reported. Investigators are currently working to determine whether the posting is legitimate.

Either way, "Game Over."

[LeoTDB69]

I don’t buy that he wrote that, seems planted

[Zhang Fei]

[The ladder was well hidden behind large trees so it’s possible if you didn’t peek around the trees you wouldn’t see the ladder.]

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when you’re trying to get to the roof without breaking your neck, you don’t overlook something like this. The cop who peeked over the roofline, then ducked, fell 8 feet. People die from concussion just falling from a standing position. Just ask Liam Neeson, whose wife died from that.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natasha_Richardson#Death

[reasonisfaith]

Has the CIA, or the group that controls them, ever tried to assassinate a president without using multiple shooters along with a patsy?

[reasonisfaith]

If we talk about Crooks all day long, then we’ll be ignoring the chance to talk about other shooters on the scene.

[Verginius Rufus]

We may never know the full story. Was Crooks just a mixed-up kid seeking notoriety or was he put up to it, maybe by a government agency? In the latter case, they may try again.

Some people think the CIA was behind the JFK assassination. I don't know if that is true, but if it is, they might be afraid that Trump would release the still-secret documents about the Kennedy assassination.

Just speculation--I have no inside information.

[Nervous Tick]

He had the confidence of an assassin with an advance team of powerful accomplices smoothing his way.

[BenLurkin]

“July 13 will be my premiere”

Opened and closed on the same night.

[The Unknown Republican]

I find it hard to believe that cryptic comment on Steam would be understood as a threat against Trump unless there was more to it.

[ConservativeMind]

My guess is he used Google Earth to prepare, too.

[Zhang Fei]

[The ladder was well hidden behind large trees so it’s possible if you didn’t peek around the trees you wouldn’t see the ladder.]

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Apart from avoiding death from a fall, the other reason a pre-existing ladder would have been found is tactical. A ladder gives you a hand free to be able to level a pistol at whomever is on the roof. Having to grab onto the edge of the roof with both hands from being boosted leaves you as vulnerable as a newborn babe.

[bigbob]

Confirmed by his choice of LORA wireless technology for what were apparently remote-controlled bombs. That tech isn’t plug-and-play and requires some technical smarts to configure and integrate with a bomb.

I’m waiting to hear more about the devices that were in his van and what he might have intended to do with them. You don’t need remote controlled bombs to assassinate one man. But if you’re intent is to commit mass murder that’s a different story.

It’s also a sign of intelligence that he did NOT post all kinds of crap on the internet, write manifestos, etc.

[butterdezillion]

Security leaving the prime assassin’s spot wide open is not inceompetent?

Only if they intended the assassination, which is what I think is the case.

Your argument totally ignores that, and I have to question why you would do that.

[Fledermaus]

If you believe a cop tried to get up there.

IF.

I don’t, right now, believe anything “they” are telling us.