More than a month after the failed attempt on former President Donald Trump’s life, clear photographs of the shooter’s gear and weapon have been released to the public.
The rifle and gear belonged to Thomas Matthew Crooks, the gunman who struck Trump from atop a nearby roof as the 45th president was holding an outdoor rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
The photos seem to confirm a report of what happened on July 13 as law enforcement took Crooks down.
In a Wednesday release, the Federal Bureau of Investigation posted multiple photographs showing Crooks’ rifle, car trunk, backpack and the point from which he accessed his rooftop firing position.
The first picture shows Crooks’ rifle with a telltale chunk missing from its stock.
Listed as a DPMS Panther Arms A-15 chambered in 5.56/.223, the stock shows clear signs of being shot, lending serious weight to a report that a shot from law enforcement shattered the rifle’s back end and “fragged” the still-living Crooks with the speeding shrapnel consisting of bits of his own weapon.
Louisiana Republican Representative Clay Higgins first alerted the public to this shot on Aug. 15.
Higgins said a Butler County SWAT team member took the shot that struck Crooks’ rifle and “fragged his face/neck/right shoulder area from the stock breaking up.” He described the SWAT shot-taker as a “total bada**.”
Crooks’ rifle was described by the FBI as having an Atlas R-One handguard, a Holosun AEMS optic, and a (shattered) Magpul collapsible stock.
Another photograph shows the rifle’s upper and lower separated.
The FBI said this was likely done to facilitate transport in a backpack belonging to Crooks that was found at the site.
A picture of the shooter’s trunk shows undetonated explosive devices, with at least one appearing to be constructed in an ammo can. The FBI cast doubt on the devices’ ability to function.
“The receiver for remote detonation was in the ‘off’ position,” the bureau noted alongside the photo. “Devices had several problems in the way they were constructed.”
A picture of Crook’s rooftop access point, taken after the shooting, was also included by the FBI.
While the release of these photographs and information gives the public something it did not have before, there are many unanswered questions about the failed assassination.
A counter-sniper working the rally confirmed this week the suspicious nature of the shooting and the integrity of the evidence gathered after it.
A House task force and an independent panel of lawmakers not on the committee are both currently working to investigate the shooting and those connected to it.
