Text messages, obtained exclusively by The Times, indicate that some law enforcement officers were aware of Thomas Crooks earlier than previously known. And he was aware of them. https://t.co/iK2syH0LnG
— Jonathan Swan (@jonathanvswan) July 29, 2024
The video from James Copenhaver, a victim critically wounded in the July 13 assassination attempt against former President Trump, shows a figure moving across a rooftop just minutes before gunfire rang out at Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. In the video taken at 6:08 p.m. on July 13, the person appears on the roof of the American Glass Research (AGR) building adjacent to where Trump was speaking. The figure can be seen walking from the 1:00-second mark to about the 2:50-second mark.
ICYMI: "Members of former president Donald Trump’s Secret Service detail and his top advisers have privately questioned why they were not informed that local police were tracking a suspicious person before that person opened fire on Trump." https://t.co/wxf8n2ArHc
— Nick Baumann (@NickBaumann) July 29, 2024
Officials believe gunman Thomas Crooks, 20, began shooting with a collapsible AR-15-style rifle three minutes later, around 6:11 p.m. Counter snipers fatally shot Crooks shortly afterward. During the assassination attempt, Crooks killed 50-year-old Corey Comperatore, a husband, father, and former fire chief at the Buffalo Township Volunteer Fire Department. Crooks also critically wounded Copenhaver, 74, and David Dutch, 57.
Both victims were shot twice, according to those familiar with the incident.
As more information about the assassination attempt on Trump emerges it is clearer than before this was incompetency and not conspiracy.
To quote Strother Martin's character in Cool Hand Luke:
"What we've got here is failure to communicate."https://t.co/PITPkojgfF— Michael Shermer (@michaelshermer) July 29, 2024
Copenhaver was not filming when he was shot, said his lawyer, Joseph Feldman at the Law Offices of Max C. Feldman. Feldman mentioned that Copenhaver had stopped filming when everyone turned their heads to look at a projection screen.
Copenhaver was discharged from Allegheny General Hospital on July 26 but is still recovering in a rehabilitation center, Feldman said.
Figure spotted on AGR rooftop
Copenhaver sustained injuries to his arm and abdominal area.
Trump and his rally attendees turned their heads to look at immigration statistics that had just been projected onto a large screen when the first shots rang out. “He had almost seen or heard something whiz past him, which we’re assuming was a bullet,” Feldman said. “He felt pain initially but hadn’t realized he had been shot a second time.”
FBI officials told reporters during a press call on Monday that Crooks gained access to the roof of the AGR building by climbing HVAC equipment and piping.
He then traversed multiple rooftops before he found his position on top of the AGR building, where he had a direct line of sight to the former president. Leading up to the shooting, Crooks researched how far Lee Harvey Oswald was from the late President John F. Kennedy when Oswald assassinated him in 1963.
On July 7, he traveled to the rally site and spent approximately 20 minutes in the area, according to Kevin Rojek, special agent in charge at the FBI’s Pittsburgh field office. On the day of the rally, Crooks parked his vehicle and flew a drone between about 3:50 p.m. and 4 p.m. about 200 yards from where the former president would be speaking on July 13. FBI Director Christopher Wray testified during a July 17 congressional hearing that Crooks had been at the rally site for about 70 minutes the morning of the assassination attempt.
Law enforcement officials were aware of a suspicious person near the rally site approximately 90 minutes before gunfire began and took photos of Crooks around 4:36 p.m. The FBI is still working to determine Crooks’ motive behind the shooting.
