Bystander video captures desperate police scramble to spot would-be Trump assassin

“Kill confirmed.”

Dramatic new ground-level video captured by a resident of Butler, Pennsylvania, provides a front-row view of the desperate police search for would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks in the more than four minutes before he unleashed his eight-shot sniper attack on former President Donald J. Trump.

An account on X with the first name "Dave" and the handle @RealDJStew724 posted a 9-minute, 27-second video that covered the period from 4 minutes, 55 seconds before the shooting at 6:11 p.m. to 4 minutes, 32 seconds after the first shot was fired.

The videographer was located on the south side of American Glass Research Building 6, from which Crooks launched his rooftop AR-15 rifle attack. Dave watched police officers run around the building looking at the roof, trying to spot Crooks, the video showed.

The man hid behind a tree for cover.

“Oh my God, there’s somebody in this building,” he said as four police officers flanked the south side and east end of the single-story warehouse building.

'They shot him in the head. Big poof of hair!'

Trump’s speech heard in the background on the video includes ironically timed words, considering the danger he was in.

“We have millions and millions of people in our country that shouldn’t be here,” the former president told tens of thousands of rally-goers about 130 yards away. “Dangerous people. Criminals, we have criminals. We have drug dealers. We have people that should not be here.”

The video showed bystanders fleeing for cover to near the chain link fence south of the building at the edge of the Butler Farm Show Inc. property.

“Make yourself small, brah, I don’t know what’s going on,” the videographer said to someone off camera.

In the video, Crooks was not visible to police and spectators on the ground except for a brief period when he raised his head above the roof peak. Crooks would have needed to do this in order to sight his target and fire. He was visible for 12 video frames, starting at the video's 4 minute, 50 second mark. The first crack of a rifle shot was was heard five seconds later.

Just before the first shot was fired, a voice in the distance bellowed, “He’s got a gun!”

Crooks’ first shot was fired just after 6:11 p.m., followed by two other shots, the audio on the video indicated. Crooks then fired five more shots in rapid succession.

Less than a second later, another shot was heard, likely fired by a counter-sniper. Ten seconds later, the final shot was heard on the video from another counter-sniper.

“Get down, guys, get down!” the videographer said to bystanders nearby. “Yeah, just get down. Get behind this tree with me. Get behind this tree.”

One of the spectators near the tree shared what he saw in a series of emotional remarks.

“They f***ing picked that dude off!” he said.

“F*** yeah, I saw a big poof of hair go up in the air."

“They shot him in the head. Big poof of hair!”

One of the bystanders shouted a question to a passing police officer, “Head shot?”

The videographer then repeated what he said was the officer's reply: “Kill confirmed."

On July 29, the @RealDJStew724 account called attention on X to a part of his video that appeared to show an object flying behind the blue water tower located east of the American Glass Research property. The object was flying at a high rate of speed. It appeared on at least three frames of the video and possibly a fourth.

The possible drone appeared to fly toward Crooks and Building 6 fewer than 10 seconds before Crooks opened fire on President Trump and the rally crowd.

A whistleblower told Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) that local law enforcement officials offered anti-drone coverage for the Trump event but the Secret Service repeatedly turned it down.

During a U.S. Senate hearing July 30 on the attempted assassination, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said a law enforcement drone system was supposed to be in use by 3 p.m., but because of "cellular bandwidth problems," it was not operational until 5:20 p.m.

Blaze News contacted the U.S. Secret Service to determine whether the object on the video was a law-enforcement drone. "We would respectfully refer you to the FBI as they are handling the investigation," said Secret Service spokesman Joseph Routh.

Blaze News contacted the FBI about the drone but had not received a reply by publication time.

The new video includes a clear view of the blue water tower east of the American Glass Research campus. Video taken about 15 seconds before the shooting captures the full height of the water tower, including the catwalk about midway up the tank. There are no people present.

One of the popular theories on social media claims a gunman fired at Trump from the nearby water tower.

Former FBI Special Agent Kyle Seraphin said the video should dispel two theories of the shooting.

"For all of you who have been talking about multiple shooters... This audio is really simple," Seraphin wrote on X. "8 shots by Crooks. 1 round from a suppressed (counter-sniper) weapon. Then a pause and a final from a suppressed weapon. Sounds like a different counter-sniper. No water tower. 3 shooters."

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