Bethel Park, Pennsylvania – Beaver County SWAT sniper Gregory Nicol said he thought “something was wrong” when he first spotted the young man wandering around the site of former President Trump’s Butler rally on July 13.
The team’s deputy leader saw a man in a grey T-shirt. – Thomas Matthew Crookes, would-be assassin – “It’s a great opportunity to get the opportunity to work with the local farmers,” he said from his seat on the second floor at the AGR complex at the Butler Farm Show. ABC News.
“He was looking up and down the building… he just seemed out of place,” Nicole said.
Trump shooting: A timeline of the assassination attempt
On July 13, 2024, former President Trump was photographed being escorted off stage at a campaign event at the Butler Farm Show in Butler, Pennsylvania, surrounded by Secret Service agents and with blood running down his face. (Rebecca Droke/AFP via Getty Images)
He noticed an abandoned backpack and bicycle, and then saw the man remove a rangefinder from his pocket. At 4:26 pm, the sniper took a photograph of the bicycle and the young man and sent it to the team’s sniper group chat at the scene, before reporting the sighting to the command group.
“I figured someone would come out to talk to this person or me and find out what’s going on,” Nicole said.
Nicol said he tried to follow the thin man in a grey shirt but lost sight of him as Nicol went down to the first floor of the AGR building and Crooks was outside the building.
Within two hours, Crooks had fired a volley of bullets, wounding the former president and two rally attendees and killing firefighter Corey Compartore.
Pennsylvania SWAT officer says team had no contact with Secret Service before Trump rally shooting
New drone footage shows Thomas Crooks’ gaze firing at a rally. (Fox News)
As the former president began his speech, Nicole noticed rally attendees looking away from the podium, up to the roof of the building and yelling that someone was there.
At first he was relieved, thinking: “They must have found the man we’re looking for there, and everyone is watching the police deal with him.”
“Then we heard gunshots,” Nicole said.
The team explained that the sniper returned fire on Crooks, then climbed onto the roof, not knowing whether the gunman was alive or dead.
Thomas Matthew Crooks is photographed in front of the Butler Fairgrounds in the aftermath of the assassination attempt on former President Trump on July 14, 2024 in Butler, Pennsylvania. (Bethel Park School District/Getty Images)
“So we got on the ladder and got on the roof,” said team member Rich Gianvito, whose body camera footage from the roof was later obtained by Fox News Digital. “We were prepared for anything at that point, because it’s uncertain at this point.”
SWAT medic Michelle Vasiladiots-Nicole responded to the rooftop with Gianvito and other local police officers.
“Then we climbed that ladder. – what – Again we weren’t sure if it was mass casualties or what we were encountering,” Vassiladiotis Nikol said.
There they found Crooks on the roof, bleeding badly, his wrists hastily bound with white zip ties in case he was still alive.
Vassiladiotis Nikol recalled placing his gloved fingers against the gunman’s neck, but “he had absolutely no pulse.”
Trump vows to expand outdoor gatherings, says Secret Service will ‘significantly step up’ after admitting mistakes
The question is how U.S. Secret Service agents stationed in the building could have adequately monitored the rally through small, low-set windows that may not have opened. (Fox News)
Jason Woods, another local sniper, said his team had not been in contact with the U.S. Secret Service before the shooting.
“We were supposed to have a face-to-face interview once the Secret Service snipers arrived, and that never happened,” Woods said. “So when that never happened and we were never able to get in touch with the Secret Service, I think that’s when I started to suspect something was wrong.”
In a statement, the Secret Service said it was “committed to better understanding what happened before, during and after the assassination attempt on former President Trump and to ensuring that this never happens again.”
“This includes fully cooperating with Congress, the FBI and any other related investigations,” the statement continued.
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“It’s something we have to always keep in mind. I remember standing in the parking lot talking to one of our members and saying we’ve become a part of history, but not in a good way,” Beaver County SWAT Deputy Leader Mike Priolo said.
“I think we all failed that day,” Priolo said. “People died. If we could have done something to stop it, we could have. We should have.”
