Attempted Trump assassin seen walking around Pennsylvania rally hours before opening fire

Chilling new video has been released showing Thomas Matthew Crooks casually walking through a crowd in Butler, Pennsylvania, nearly two hours before he opened fire on former President Donald Trump and attendees at a campaign rally. The short clip, released by the clothing company Iron Clad USA, shows Crooks at 4:26 p.m. dressed in shorts and a “Demolitia” T-shirt walking past a line of vendors selling Trump merchandise ahead of the July 13 rally. The owner of the video, Joe Tomko of Iron Clad USA, told Fox News Digital that he and his family and friends were promoting some new merchandise in an area of the rally dubbed “vendors row,” which he described as “an asphalt lane located parallel to the local airport runway.” TRUMP ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT SPARKS INVESTIGATION OF SECRET SERVICE DEI POLICIES: ‘COMPROMISED ITS MISSION’ “This was the area we spent the day promoting our hats and speaking to wonderful people, as a majority of attendees parked their cars in a connected large grass field, exited their vehicles, and walked past vendors row to the security entrance,” Tomko said. Around 4:15, most people were inside the rally perimeter, Tomko said, and for the next 15-or-so-minutes, he and his family and friends “began to document the colorful scene of vendors row with a video, as the flags blowing in the wind appeared very patriotic.” — Joe Tomko “I felt shock, disbelief, and sadness, realizing I had a video of this man on my phone,” Tomko said. “I personally reached out to law enforcement to share the video hoping it could help build a timeline of events from that day, and was later questioned by them. After Crooks opened fire around 6:11 p.m., Tomko’s sister called him at 6:14 p.m. “Trump was shot,” she said. Tomko saw people running away from the venue and called his son-in-law, who was inside the rally perimeter, at 6:16 p.m. to make sure he was okay. WATCH: VIDEO SHOWS TRUMP SHOOTING VICTIM’S POV “After what felt like eternity, I got a text message from him at 6:21pm, letting me know he was physically okay,” Tomko said. “Terrifying moment… looking back on my videos from the PA Butler Trump rally on 7/13/24,” the company’s owner wrote on the TikTok version of the video. Crooks later climbed onto the roof of the nearby AGR building and fired eight shots, with one bullet grazing Trump’s right ear. “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 Secret Service said in a statement in response to news of the new footage being released. CLICK TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP A preliminary report released by Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., last week found that all eight shell casings were recovered and are in proper possession of the FBI. One shot was fired by a Butler SWAT operator from the ground, about 100 yards away from the AGR building. The shot hit Crooks’ rifle stock and fragged his face and shoulder area from the stock breaking up, Higgins said. Higgins believes this shot damaged the buffer tube on Crooks’ rifle, meaning that the rifle would not have fired after his eighth shot. – This Summarize was created by Neural News AI (V1). Source: https://www.foxnews.com/us/attempted-trump-assassin-seen-walking-around-pennsylvania-rally-hours-before-opening-fire