Trump shooting suspect visited shooting range dozens of times, including on holidays: senator

The suspect in the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump visited a gun club dozens of times in the year leading up to the attack, including on holidays, according to records recently obtained by Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, as dramatic body camera footage of the incident emerged.

Records obtained by Grassley’s office and released Thursday show “intense preparation” by Thomas Matthew Crooks “in the months leading up to his attempted assassination of the former president,” Grassley’s office said in a statement.

The records were provided by the Clairton Sportsmen’s Club of Jefferson Hills, Pennsylvania, pursuant to a congressional request, Grassley’s office said.

Records released by Grassley’s office show that since establishing his gun club membership on Aug. 10, 2023 — less than a year before the July 13 assassination attempt — Crooks visited the range a total of 43 times, including 20 times in his first four months of membership.

Crooks spent several holidays at the range, including Christmas Day, Valentine’s Day and Halloween, according to records released by Grassley’s office.

Most of his visits (80%) were spent practicing shooting, according to Grassley’s office.

“It focused almost exclusively on the range through 2024,” Grassley’s office said.

The Clairton Sportsmen’s Club previously confirmed to ABC News that Crooks last visited the gun club on July 12, the day before the rally. He visited the range at 2:45 p.m. local time that day, according to records released by Grassley’s office.

Crooks, 20, is suspected of firing as many as eight shots from the roof of a building outside the security perimeter of the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, before being killed by a Secret Service sniper.

Body camera footage released Thursday shows the moment police first confronted the gunman. One officer is seen being lifted onto the roof, meeting the shooter and then falling backward.

“That close, bro!” the officer yells. “Dude, he turned around and came at me!”

The video shows officers grabbing heavy weapons and running into the building.

“This building. He’s on top of this building,” an officer yells. “He’s got a backpack. He’s got some crazy shit, AR, laying down.”

As officers head toward the building, other officers are seen offering a push toward the roof.

“Next, next, next,” one officer says in an apparent attempt to quickly get more officers into position.

But by then Crooks was already dead.

“One arrested. AGR building south. Roof,” an officer can be heard saying.

Later, in a quieter moment, officers questioned how a gunman was able to gain access to a rooftop shooting position, less than 400 feet from the podium where Trump had been speaking.

“I told them to put those damn guys here,” one officer is heard saying. “Why weren’t we on the roof?”

Butler County released the images Thursday in response to public records requests from news agencies including ABC News.

In the assassination attempt, one rally-goer was killed and two others were injured. Trump also suffered a scratch on his ear. The motive for the assassination attempt remains under investigation.

Ronald Rowe, acting director of the Secret Service, said last week that video from that day confirmed there should have been better coverage.

“We should have protected the protected person better. We should have covered that roof line better,” Rowe told reporters.

FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate told a Senate panel last month that the investigation remains focused on motive, identifying possible co-conspirators and piecing together a timeline of the shooter’s actions.