New bodycam video footage confirmed that Secret Service agents had identified Thomas Matthew Crooks as a suspicious person before an attempted assassination attempt targeting former President Donald Trump.
The graphic video, which was released by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), shows local police officers and an apparent Secret Service agent standing over Crooks’ lifeless body along the roof where he opened fire, killing one attendee, injuring two others and wounding Trump during a rally in Pennsylvania earlier this month.
“So this is the guy,” the agent said in the footage.
“This is him,” a Beaver County Emergency Service unit officer replied.
A police sniper took photos of Crooks, 20, which included him on a bicycle, prior to the shooting, according to the emergency services officer.
“That’s the sniper that sent the original picture and seen him come from the bike and set the bookbag down and then lost sight of him,” the officer told the apparent Secret Service agent.
The two officials were then seen scrolling through photos of the suspected suspicious individual on an iPhone. Video footage previously shared by WTAE showed Crooks, whose face wasn’t clearly visible, walking back and forth near a building just outside the secured perimeter of the outdoor event at around 5:06 p.m. local time.
A photo obtained by WXPI showed Crooks crawling on the ground and appearing to scope out a spot near the Butler, Pennsylvania, rally at around 5:45 p.m. local time. Crooks, who was found with a detonator wired to an improvised explosive device hidden in the trunk of his car parked nearby, opened fire about 26 minutes after the photo was taken, at which point he was immediately taken out by Secret Service agents.
Trump’s right ear was grazed during the shooting and he was seen yelling “fight” to his supporters while being evacuated from the rally by Secret Service members. One spectator, identified as Corey Comperatore, 50, was killed during the incident while two others, David Dutch, 57, of New Kensington, and James Copenhaver, 74, were initially critically wounded but later upgraded to stable condition.
Trump officially accepted the Republican presidential nomination during the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, last Thursday (July 18).
Recent Comments