(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Fox News published previously unseen footage Wednesday, showing someone on the same rooftop used by Thomas Crooks to shoot at presidential frontrunner Donald Trump minutes later.
“A video from James Copenhaver, one of the victims critically wounded in the July 13 assassination attempt against former President Trump, shows a figure moving across the roof of the American Glass Research (AGR) building just minutes before gunfire rang out at Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania,” Fox reported.
“In the video taken at 6:08 p.m. on July 13, the person appears on the roof of the building adjacent to where Trump is speaking and can be seen walking from the 1:00 second mark to about the 2:50 second mark.”
The person seen in the footage was presumably Crooks. Either way, the footage adds to the mystery of how the Secret Service could possibly have missed the would-be assassin before he opened fire from the AGR building about 110 yards away from Trump. As previously published footage shows, there were numerous rallygoers who saw Crooks on the rooftop. Those attendees shouted that Crooks had a gun shortly before he opened fire.
Copenhaver’s footage was released about a day after another rallygoer released footage showing that panicked local police officers had Crooks surrounded while Donald Trump was on stage speaking—and seconds before Crooks opened fire.
“There’s somebody in this building,” said the person who shot that footage, who identified himself as Dave Stewart.
Stewart was right. One of the local, Beaver County counter snipers who spotted Crooks left his second-floor perch to move through the first floor of the building to shadow Crooks, who was outside, and keep eyes on him. But the sniper, Greg Nicol, reportedly lost sight of Crooks as the counter sniper made his way down to the building’s first level.
Seconds later, shots rang out. Trump was shot in the ear, a firefighter was killed, and at least two others were hospitalized with severe injuries—including Copenhaver.
Meanwhile, Copenhaver was reportedly discharged from Allegheny General Hospital on July 26 and is still recovering in a rehabilitation center. Fox reported that the first injury Copenhaver sustained was to his arm and the second was to his abdominal area.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
