https://x.com/susancrabtree/status/1813935447531245747

MPORTANT SECRET SERVICE DEVELOPMENT: I just talked to a well-positioned source in the Secret Service community who confirmed reports of agency intelligence gathering that supports a theory that rally shooter Thomas Crooks was likely planning to take out people in the crowd in a mass Vegas-style shooting and wasn't initially planning to attempt to assassinate Trump.

He changed his mind after he was scrambling to escape police and climbed onto the roof. When he saw that nobody was on the roof and he had a clean shot at Trump, he went for it. No one can completely get inside the shooter's head because he's dead. But high-level sources within the Secret Service are convinced that he was planning to shoot at the crowd because he used his range-finder on the ground first and was trying to escape police when he scrambled onto the roof.

I'm also hearing that he assembled the gun from parts in his backpack once on the roof. I'm told he DID NOT use the range-finder on the roof -- maybe why his shot at Trump was off and the fact that he failed to get into or got cut from his h.s. shooting club.

In 2nd post from Crabtree

I am stressing that this is a working theory within senior-level USSS agents/officials based on intelligence gathering. We may never know because Crooks is dead -- unless FBI finds a manifesto laying out his plans.