First appearance on FOX — New video footage obtained by Fox News Digital of the attempted assassination of former President Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13 shows additional angles of the shooting that left rally-goer Corey Comperatore dead and two other men critically injured.
Footage recently posted to X Channel by rally attendee Jeffrey Gronski shows a different angle of the sniper positioned next to the former president before shots ring out.
“I was just watching Trump speak, so I didn't really notice anything, so I didn't pay attention to the sniper in the background,” Jeffrey Gronsky, whose wife shot the video, told Fox News Digital. “I didn't even realize until I reviewed the footage later that the sniper was looking through his scope toward the building.”
Gronski, a retired Marine, said it was his first time attending a Trump rally and that before leaving the house that day, his wife said, “I don't want to die at a Trump rally.”
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New video of the attempted assassination of President Trump shows a sniper positioned next to former President Trump just before the shooting begins. (X's FaceSmasher3000)
“I said, 'You're not going to die at a Trump rally. Everything's going to be fine.' Trump has had plenty of rallies, and she knows how crazy the political climate is this year,” Gronski recalled.
The video adds depth to lingering questions about how the gunman, 20-year-old Thomas Crooks, managed to evade security and climb onto the roof of the nearby American Glass Research (AGR) building where he carried out the deadly assassination attempt.
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Thomas Matthew Crooks is seen on a rooftop moments before attempting to assassinate former President Trump. (DJ Laughery | Inset via Fox News Digital)
In a statement to Fox News Digital, the Secret Service said it was “currently aware of and is reviewing various video footage from July 13 as part of its mission assurance review.”
“The U.S. Secret Service is committed to investigating the processes, procedures and factors that led to this operational failure to ensure this never happens again,” the agency said.
The FBI confirmed at a press conference on August 28 that Crooks was seen walking near a row of vendors outside the rally's perimeter at 4:26 p.m. on July 13, about an hour and a half before Trump was set to speak.
Video taken from the perspective of the victim of the Trump assassination attempt shows a figure moving across a rooftop moments before the shooting
Former President Trump was injured in an assassination attempt at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
According to the FBI, video footage from a local business showed Crooks climbing onto the AGR Building and walking across the rooftop between 6:05 and 6:08 a.m.
““Our overall findings are that the suspect was on the roof for approximately six minutes prior to the shooting — sometime between 6:05 p.m. and 6:11 p.m. — and was then neutralized,” said Kevin Rojek, special agent in charge of the FBI's Pittsburgh field office, who later denied rumors that there was a second shooter.
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On the day of the rally, Crooks flew the drone for 11 minutes, Rojek told Fox News Digital that the incidents occurred at 3:51 p.m. and 4:02 p.m.
The FBI's observations of the drone's flight path “could have helped subjects assess the security posture of the event,” Rojek said.
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A police officer stands beside Thomas Crooks after he was shot. (Butler Township Police Department)
The FBI is investigating Crooks' motive and whether any co-conspirators had advance knowledge of the attack. Rojek said at the time that Crooks “engaged in a sustained and meticulous effort to plan an attack against an event, which means he had numerous events and targets in mind.”
The 20-year-old shooter was “unusually focused” on Trump's rally in Butler after it was announced in early July, the FBI said, adding that the gunman had no identifiable political affiliation.
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A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers stand on the roof of the AGR Building in Butler, Pennsylvania, on August 26, 2024, as part of a visit by a special investigative team investigating the assassination attempt on former President Trump. (Adam Gray for Fox News Digital)
The FBI said on August 28 that a Secret Service counter-shooter shot and killed Crooks seconds after the gunman opened fire.
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Rep. Mike Kelly, a Pennsylvania Republican who chairs the House Select Committee on Assassination Attempts, and Rep. Jason Crow, a Colorado Democrat, sent letters to five local law enforcement agencies on Tuesday morning requesting recorded interviews and additional information about the assassination attempt, including “planning, participation, and actions and communications after the incident,” the committee said in a press release.
