New footage released shows Thomas Matthew Crooks strolling through a Butler, Pennsylvania gathering on the same day he tried to murder former President Donald Trump at one of his campaign rallies.
In the short video description released by Iron Clad USA, a man identified as Crooks is shown strolling past vendors selling Trump merchandise at 4:26 p.m. clad in shorts and one of his “Demolitia” T-shirts. He was also wearing the same T-shirt when later he opened fire on Trump and attendees of his rally.
The U.S. Secret Service responded to the video with a statement: “The U.S. Secret Service is aware of and reviewing a variety of footage from July 13 as part of our mission assurance review. The U.S. Secret Service is committed to examining the processes, procedures, and factors that led to this operational failure, so that we can ensure it never happens again.”
A preliminary report released last week by Representative Clay Higgins (R-LA) said that the FBI will get all eight of those shell casings collected from the men’s cell in custody for testing purposes.
Crooks was concealed very well from the northern counter-sniper team because of two trees on the north side of AGR, Higgins said and pointed out where Crooks had laid down behind small-leaf foliage and many branches to describe how he would have appeared sniping from a prone position.
Higgins also said a Butler SWAT operator shot from the ground as well, nearly 100 yards away and that bullet hit Crooks’ rifle stock. The round broke the stock, which then caused Crooks’ face and shoulder to be hit; Higgins thinks it also bent the buffer tube of his rifle so that after he fired eight rounds, it wouldn’t operate any more.
The report also acknowledges that 10 days after Crooks was shot to death, the FBI allowed his body to be cremated—news on this fact only reached Higgins when he drove by a funeral home with notice of burial posted in its window.
In a statement to Fox News Digital, an FBI spokesperson said that Crooks in order of procedure “was obtained by his loved ones,” and after consulting with the coroner’s office and state; alongside local law enforcement partners.
