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. 

He was wearing the same T-shirt when he opened fire on Trump and is not carrying anything in the eerie video. 

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.”

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“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.”

They took three videos and planned to upload one to Iron Clad USA’s social media pages. It wasn’t until a week later that Tomko and his friends and family were looking through their photos when they realized they had captured the shooter himself.

“I felt shock, disbelief, and sadness, realizing I had a video of this man on my phone.”

— Joe Tomko

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Thomas Matthew Crooks crawling on a roof moments before he attempted to assassinate former President Donald Trump. (DJ Laughery (background))

“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. We then decided to post a video on social media (7/23/24) in an effort to gain awareness and potentially assist others in the timeline of their investigation. Initially, our video did not get much attention, and it wasn’t until a few days ago … it went viral.”

After Crooks opened fire around 6:11 p.m., Tomko’s sister called him at 6:14 p.m.

“Trump was shot,” she said. “Leave immediately, get out of there now.”

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.

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“After what felt like eternity, I got a text message from him at 6:21pm, letting me know he was physically okay,” Tomko said. “I then learned my son-in-law was standing on the same bleacher section as Mr. Corey Comperatore and his family, and unfortunately witnessed the absolutely devastating shooting. Our family was horrified to hear this took place, and that he was so close to where it happened.”

He extended his sympathies to the Comperatore family and the families of the other victims impacted by the assassination attempt.

“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. “We were there just trying to sell our patriotic hats from my small business.”

Crooks later climbed onto the roof of the nearby AGR building and fired eight shots, with one bullet grazing Trump’s right ear. One attendee, Corey Comperatore, was fatally struck, while two others were also hit and suffered serious injuries.

Pictures of Thomas Mathew Crooks taken by a sniper. (Sen. Ron Johnson’s Office)

“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. 

“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.”

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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. Higgins said that Crooks’ position on the roof of the AGR building provided him with excellent concealment from the northern counter-sniper team due to the foliage and branches of two trees.

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.

Police standing over Thomas Crooks after he was shot (Butler Township Police Department)

Higgins believes this shot damaged the buffer tube on Crooks’ rifle, meaning that the rifle would not have fired after his eighth shot.

The report also states that the FBI released Crooks’ body for cremation just 10 days after he was killed. Higgins said he became aware of this after he tried to view the body.

An FBI spokesperson tells Fox News Digital that Crooks’ body was released to his family after coordination with the coroner’s office as well as state and local law enforcement partners “in keeping with normal procedures.”