(Ken Silva, Headline USA) In the immediate aftermath of the July 13, 2024, Trump assassination attempt, there were widespread rumors of a possible second shooter on the water tower near the Butler Farm Show rally site.
Those rumors were false. There was no water tower shooter.
Indeed, this reporter visited the Butler Farm Show, and the water tower is much closer to the rally site than what appeared on television—meaning that any potential shooter up there would have been clearly visible to the cameras, the rallygoers, and to the people in the neighborhood next to it. Also, investigators found that the ladder to the water tower was never lowered.
Perhaps most importantly, the bullet trajectories don’t match. Researchers who still subscribe to a two-shooter theory have abandoned the possibility of the water tower altogether. They say any second shooter would have had to have come from the tree line below the water tower.
However, with all that said, someone did call 911 to report seeing “something” on top of the water tower before the shooting began, according to new documents obtained by Headline USA.
🚨NEW: More than a year after the J13 Butler shooting, it's been established that there was no 2nd shooter on the water tower — among other reasons, the bullet trajectories don't align. Researchers who still subscribe to the 2-shooter theory believe that the second gunman… pic.twitter.com/X1EzgjjWuL
— Headline USA (@HeadlineUSA) August 19, 2025
The new documents are from the Butler County ESU’s operational deployment report, which the unit’s commander, Ed Lenz, drafted after the incident. Lenz wrote that at 6:55 p.m., he received info from Butler City’s 911 dispatch.
“911 relayed info from Butler City—they had a report of something on top of the water tower before this began,” Lenz wrote.
Lenz’s comments match bodycam footage from around that same time, when an officer can be heard over the radio saying that someone “said they saw something on top of the water tower before this all started.”
However, until now it wasn’t known that the report came from a 911 caller—and not just someone who claimed in the heat of the moment to have seen something.
NEW: Recently released body cam footage reveals that someone "said they saw something on top of the water tower before this all started." pic.twitter.com/HaZ75RBGiD
— Headline USA (@HeadlineUSA) July 26, 2024
In any event, Butler ESU flew a drone above the water tower about an hour after receiving the report. They didn’t find anyone or anything there, they said.
Headline USA will continue to investigate the matter and try to obtain more records about this mysterious 911 call.
Ken Silva is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
