(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Hopefully it’s not a bad omen, but it was a surreal moment Friday when a drone appeared overhead while Headline USA interviewed Blake Marnell—better known as the popular Trump supporter “Brick Suit”—outside of the AGR building that gunman Thomas Crooks used as a perch to shoot at the former and possibly future President.
Marnell was telling this reporter about his previous experience at the July 13 rally, and what he expects for Trump’s return on Saturday. Then, the drone appeared.
I was interviewing the famous @Brick_Suit outside of the AGR building
Guess what happened 😆 pic.twitter.com/sIURj2zUmT
— Ken Silva (@JD_Cashless) October 4, 2024
“We weren’t really sure about his health. The fact that he [raised his fist to the crowd and said, ‘Fight, fight, fight!’] before he left the stage allowed people to know that he was OK, and—,” Marnell said, when suddenly a drone appeared overhead.
“I wager that’s being flown by a civilian who should not be flying that. That should not be out there. It doesn’t look like law enforcement, and it felt like it came from that direction. I can’t imagine who’s doing that. Maybe we’ll see some Secret Service out here,” Marnell said.
The drone left about five minutes later without apparent incident.
It’s unclear whether flight restrictions were in place at the time of Friday’s sighting. Butler Township Police didn’t immediately respond to a media inquiry from this reporter.
At the previous Trump rally, the FBI said that Crooks allegedly flew a drone over the site around 3:50 p.m. on the day of his shooting, which occurred at 6:11 p.m.
“We have recovered a drone the shooter appeared to use. It was recovered in his vehicle with the controller. Additionally, we’ve uncovered that around 3:50 p.m., on the day of the shooting, that the shooter was flying the drone around the area. Not over the stage, but about 200 yards away from that—we think, but don’t know,” FBI Director Chris Wray said at a July congressional hearing.
Recently released interview transcripts state that the Secret Service’s drone-detection equipment wasn’t online until 4:33 p.m.
According to the Secret Service’s counter-drone operator, there was a problem with an ethernet cable the system was connected to.
“I switched out the cables, and shortly after the system became active. And at 4:33, I contacted [another Secret Service official] to let him know that the system was active,” the counter-drone operator said, according to the interview transcript.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
