Investigation into shooting at Trump rally continues as new details of assassination emerge

The investigation is ongoing in attack about former President Donald Trump, who appeared on Monday evening at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee — the first time he was seen in public since he shot and injured at his campaign rally in Pennsylvania.

The crowd at the convention cheered Trump, whose Ear was connected after it was hit by a bullet on Saturday.

Details about the moments leading up to the shooting are emerging. Bystanders alerted police to the gunman on the roof of a building about 125 meters from the stage at least two minutes before Trump was first shot, according to a video reviewed by CBS News.

A local police official with direct knowledge of the incident told CBS News that three snipers – local tactical teams deployed to assist U.S. intelligence – were stationed in the building the gunman used for his attack. The operational plan called for them to be stationed inside the building, looking out windows at the rally.

One of the local snipers inside spotted the shooter. Thomas Matthew Crooksoutside and looked up at the roof, watched the building and disappeared, the officer said. Crooks came back, sat down and looked at his phone. That’s when one of the snipers took a photo of him. Crooks pulled out a rangefinder and the sniper radioed the command post. Crooks disappeared again and then came back a third time with a backpack. The snipers called and reported that he had a backpack and was walking to the back of the building.

Officials believe Crooks may have used an air conditioning unit to get to the roof. By the time other officers arrived for backup, he had already climbed to the roof of the building and was above and behind the snipers in the building, the official said.

Two other officers, who heard the sniper’s call, tried to get to the roof. State police rushed to the scene, but by that time a Secret Service sniper had already killed Crooks, the official said.

The FBI is investigating whether the shooter was a politically motivated domestic violent extremist, and investigators are still digging into his past. Justice Department officials told reporters that investigators have the shooter’s phone and are examining it at the FBI lab in Quantico, Virginia.