Shooter Allegedly Brought His Own Ladder to Event

CNN just reported the following:

In the 48 hours before he opened fire on former President Donald Trump, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks made a series of stops in and around his suburban Pittsburgh hometown.

On Friday, he went to a shooting range where he was a member, and practiced firing, a law enforcement official told CNN. The next morning, Crooks went to a Home Depot, where he bought a five-foot ladder, and a gun store, where he purchased 50 rounds of ammunition, the official said.

Then, Crooks drove his Hyundai Sonata about an hour north, joining thousands of people from around the region who flocked to Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. He parked the car outside the rally, with an improvised explosive device hidden in the trunk that was wired to a transmitter he carried, the official said. Then, investigators believe, he used his newly-bought ladder to scale a nearby building, and opened fire on the former president.

IF this is true, it is yet another glaring indication that security was simply pulled from the building located about 130 yards north of where Trump was scheduled to speak.

Naturally the notion of Crooks toting a ladder up to the building without being observed and stopped seems beyond belief. The CNN report mentions nothing about a roof rack on his car, and even a telescoping ladder probably wouldn’t fit in a Hyundai Sonata.

An alternative theory is that the alleged “law enforcement” official quoted by CNN is misdirection—that is, that in fact it was conveyed to Crooks that the ladder would already be in place upon his arrival. Given that the building was the most logical place to post police sentries, one wonders if the ladder was originally erected for police officers who then—for some reason—left their post and left the ladder in place.

IF Crooks brought the ladder with him, he must have visited the building in advance to ascertain the roof height and a favorable place to erect the ladder (on a section of wall conveniently obscured by a cluster of ornamental cypress trees).

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