Armed cops surrounded the building where a gunman opened fire at Donald Trump more than two minutes before the shooter attempted to assassinate the former president, shocking new footage has revealed.
Thomas Crooks, 20, fired eight shots in Trump’s direction from an AR-style rifle after scaling the roof of a building of some 135 meters from where Trump was speaking at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
One rallygoer was killed and two others were injured. Crooks was shot dead by a Secret Service countersniper.
But newly released footage captured by a rallygoer shows that local cops surrounded the AGR International factory building with their guns drawn a full two minutes and 10 seconds before he unleased the volley of shots.
It is unclear how long police were surrounding the building before the witness started filming, but it was previously reported that the gunman opened fire roughly 30 seconds after a local officer climbed on the roof, confronted him and then retreated after Crooks pointed his rifle at him.
Armed cops surrounded the building where gunman Thomas Crooks opened fire at Donald Trump a full two minutes and 10 seconds before shots rang out
The footage, which appears to have been filmed from the field at the base of the AGR building, shows armed officers surrounding the building where Crooks had been perched with an assault-style rifle as Trump addresses his supporters from the stage
The new footage comes as Senate lawmakers are expected Tuesday to grill the acting director of the Secret Service about law enforcement lapses in the hours before the assassination attempt in the latest in a series of congressional hearings dedicated to the shooting.
Astonishing new video, shared on social media by X user @realDJStew724, shows how police were seemingly aware of a potential threat minutes before Trump was shot on July 13.
The footage, which appears to have been filmed from the field at the base of the AGR building, shows armed officers surrounding the building where Crooks had been perched with an assault-style rifle as Trump addresses his supporters from the stage.
‘There’s f*****g cops surrounding this whole entire f*****g building right now,’ a woman can be heard saying as police continue to move around the building.
For more than two minutes bystanders encouraged each other to ‘make yourself small’ before someone yelled ‘he’s got a gun!’ and eight shots rang out.
The terrified rallygoers sought cover as they tried to understand what happened.
The cameraman asks another bystander: ‘Did they pick him off?’
‘F**k yeah, I saw a big poof of hair go up in the air. They got him right in the head. Big poof of hair,’ another witness replies as the crowd begins to cheer.
Trump, after being shot, defiantly raised his fist towards his supporters and encouraged them to ‘fight’ as he was escorted off the stage by Secret Service. He was was met with chants of ‘USA’ and ‘ Make America Great Again’ from the crowd.
Thomas Crooks, 20, (pictured) fired eight shots in Trump’s direction from an AR-style rifle after scaling the roof of a building of some 135 meters from where Trump was speaking at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania
Law enforcement standing over the dead body of Trump’s attempted assassin moments after he was shot dead
Donald Trump, pictured after he was shot at his rally on July 13, raised his fist and appeared to mouth ‘fight’ to his supporters as Secret Service escorted him off the stage
The new video is the latest in a string of evidence showcasing apparent security failures at Trump’s rally.
Kimberly Cheatle, who stepped down from her post as Secret Service Director in the aftermath of the shooting, admitted last week that the attempt on Trump’s life was the agency’s ‘most significant operational failure’ in decades.
At her hearing last week, Cheatle said the Secret Service had ‘failed’ in its mission to protect Trump and vowed to ‘move heaven and earth’ to get to the bottom of what went wrong and make sure there’s no repeat of it.
She acknowledged that the Secret Service was told about a suspicious person two to five times before the shooting at the rally.
She also revealed that the roof from which Crooks opened fire had been identified as a potential vulnerability days before the rally.
Cheatle said she apologized to Trump in a phone call after the assassination attempt.
Ronald Rowe became acting director of the agency last week after Cheatle resigned in the aftermath of a House hearing in which she was berated by lawmakers from both parties and failed to answer specific questions about the communication failures preceding the July 13 shooting.
Rowe, joined by FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate, will face questions about law enforcement lapses at the rally during at a joint hearing of the Senate committees on the Judiciary and Homeland Security today.
The hearing comes one day after the FBI released new details about its investigation into the shooting, revealing Crooks had looked online for information about mass shootings, power plants, improvised explosive devices and the May assassination attempt of the Slovakian prime minister.
Police personnel are pictured standing over Crooks’ body on the rooftop of the AGR building where he opened fire at Trump’s rally on July 13
The last photo of would-be Trump assassin, Thomas Crooks, 20, showing him clad in a t-shirt branded with the logo of YouTube channel Demolition Ranch
The backpack affixed to this bicycle was reportedly related to Crooks’ assassination attempt. In the video, local police confirm that the bike is being treated as a ‘suspicious device’
The FBI also said that Trump has agreed to be interviewed by agents as a crime victim; the bureau said last week that the former president had been struck in the ear by a bullet or fragment of one. Trump said Monday evening that he expected that interview to take place on Thursday.
But the bulk of the questions Tuesday are expected to be directed at Rowe as lawmakers demand answers about how Crooks was able to get so close to Trump.
In a Monday night interview on Fox News, Trump defended the Secret Service agents who protected him from the shooting but said someone should have been on the roof with Crooks and that there should have been better communication with local police.
‘They didn’t speak to each other,’ he said.
He praised the sniper who killed Crooks with what he said was an amazing shot but noted: ‘It would have been good if it was nine seconds sooner.’
