(Ken Silva, Headline USA) A man who attended the deadly July 13 Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, says he saw a “young man” open-carrying his rifle with a group of people walking behind before the event that day.
The disclosure was revealed in a lawsuit filed by rallygoer Bradford Price, who seeks body cam footage from the Pennsylvania State Police. The lawsuit was first reported by the local newspaper, the Butler Eagle.
“Before that encounter with the trooper, Price said he saw a man, who he believed was 16 or 17 years old, openly carrying an assault rifle in his left hand parallel to the ground with a knapsack or backpack slung over his shoulder, according to the petition,” the Butler Eagle reported Wednesday.
“Price said he initially thought the young man was with a group of five or six people that was walking behind him. As he continued walking, Price said he looked again and noticed the young man was still walking behind him, but the rest of the group was not there.”
At the time, Price reportedly thought that the young man was simply exercising his constitutional right to carry his firearm. But after the shooting, he had second thoughts.
Price further said that he talked to a PSP trooper with the young man behind him—meaning that the trooper’s body cam should have captured footage of the person. Price argued in his lawsuit that it is imperative that the recordings are released for public viewing.
“Unredacted footage from those two PSP officers and from their vehicles will assist the many investigations currently underway, and help determine who this lone individual was outside of the Donald J. Trump political rally just 2 1/2 hours before the former president being shot in his ear and carrying an assault rifle openly for anyone to publicly see,” Price said in the petition, according to the Butler Eagle.
“This video footage should fill missing gaps of the incomplete timeline regarding the shooter’s whereabouts before the event if those video recordings conclusively demonstrate that this individual was in fact the AGR rooftop shooter.”
Price’s siting of the young man happened around 3:30 p.m., according to his filing.
Video footage from the rally shows alleged gunman Thomas Crooks walking around the rally—without a gun—at 4:26 p.m., which was more than 100 minutes before his attack.
A police vehicle camera also captured Crooks walking alongside the road outside the event shortly after 5 p.m.
Does anyone have this dashcam footage? I don’t think I’ve seen it before. Here is a clip from 60 Minutes Australia on the assassination attempts… pic.twitter.com/oqAfJ28y5j
— Birdy1776 (@Birdy1776) September 30, 2024
Law enforcement first identified Crooks as suspicious around 5:10 p.m., which was 61 minutes before his shooting. A sniper took pictures of Crooks four minutes later, and sent them to a group of other local law enforcement snipers at 5:38 p.m.
The shooting happened at 6:11 p.m.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
