Trump Shooter Thomas Crooks Was Casually Strolling Around 90 Minutes Before the Rally Shooting

Former president Donald Trump survived an assassination attempt at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13th. Thomas Matthew Crooks, the lone gunman, was instantly taken down by the Secret Service. After admitting that significant security flaws were overlooked for Trump's rally, USSS head Kimberly Cheatle resigned. Since then, the agency has faced intense criticism for security failures. According to CNN, a startling new angle has emerged in the ongoing investigation, about ninety minutes before the assassin open fired on the Republican leader, Crooks can be seen strolling around the event grounds in a recently discovered video, which may be the clearest image of him to date. 

The footage was captured at 4:26 p.m. by vendor Joe Tomko who was selling patriotic hats, in the released footage, Crooks is seen plainly sporting shorts and a grey T-shirt. He appears to be unarmed and is not behaving suspiciously as he makes his way toward the AGR complex. Tomko recorded the video less than an hour before the lone gunman was initially seen on camera by law authorities. Many of Crooks' photos that surfaced online appeared grainy or taken from afar, however, Tomko's video accurately captured him in motion on the day of the rally. 

At 5:14 p.m., Crooks was spotted sitting beneath a window by another eyewitness, a local SWAT officer stationed in an AGR building next to the building the assassin would fire from. According to the Beaver County sniper, Crooks seemed strange, so he decided to snap a picture. Shortly afterward, Nicol noticed that Crooks was pointing a range finder toward the platform where Trump was scheduled to speak.

This sparked a furious 39-minute hunt for the assassin, during which a significant breakdown in law enforcement agency communication was discovered, leading to what is widely considered to be the worst Secret Service mishap in decades.

One spectator was killed and two others were injured when Crooks fired eight rounds at Trump from the roof of one of the complex's buildings. The GOP nominee barely missed the bullets from inches with one of it grazing his right ear. Tomko subsequently revealed that he first saw Crooks on one of his rally footages when he was going over it a week later. “I was in disbelief,” Tomko said. “I knew right away the video needed to be shared with the FBI first.” The vendor then gave the FBI access to the footage two days later, and federal agents then spoke with him, Tomko said. 

As reported by Axios, a week later after the assassination attempt Trump's former White House physician, Rep. Ronny Jackson shared details of injury via a memo, he wrote that the bullet came "less than a quarter of an inch from entering [Trump's] head, and struck the top of his right ear. The bullet track produced a 2 cm wide wound that extended down to the cartilaginous surface of the ear," Jackson wrote. "There was initially significant bleeding, followed by marked swelling of the entire upper ear," he stated. After treating Trump every day since last weekend, Jackson added that the swelling had "resolved" and that "the wound is beginning to granulate and heal properly."