Police saw Crooks run across roof 3 minutes before he shot former President Trump

Pennsylvania State Police and the Butler Township Police Department spotted would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks running fully upright across the long roof line at the American Glass Research complex more than three minutes before Crooks opened fire on former President Donald J. Trump, police bodycam video shows.

Disclosures found on hours of police bodycam footage are raising new questions on why Crooks was not deemed a threat earlier and Trump taken off the stage before the 20-year-old gunman could open fire, wounding Trump, killing a retired fire chief, and seriously injuring two bystanders.

The bodycam also makes clear that the lack of Secret Service or police presence on the entire AGR complex roof enabled Crooks to pull off his deadly attack and calls into question the decision to not include the AGR grounds inside the security zone for the event.

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Videos obtained from the Butler Township Police Department by Judicial Watch Inc. add important details to the attempted assassination of former President Trump. But they are also missing key sections of audio and redacted video that could hold valuable detail on what local officers on the ground said, did, and heard in the minutes before the shooting.

One video shows a squad car from Pennsylvania State Police sitting about 100 yards east of the AGR building at 6:08:21 p.m. when the trooper broadcast on police radio, “Someone’s on the roof.”

“They got up on there and said, 'Long gun!'”

A Butler Township Police Department officer pulled his squad car even with the trooper, and the officer asked, “What’s up, man?”

“Eyes along the roof. White shorts,” the trooper replied.

“See that dude running?” the Butler officer pointed out at 6:08:39 p.m.

Both squad cars then raced across the lawn toward the AGR building.

The bodycam of another Butler Township police officer who was searching the grounds on foot showed a fully upright Crooks running from north to south along about two-thirds the length of the AGR roof — almost exactly three minutes before Trump was shot. The officer's bodycam audio was turned off so it's not known if he saw Crooks or heard the radio report of a man in white shorts on the roof.

Another Butler Township officer told a colleague after the shooting he had spotted Crooks climb onto the roof. “I’ll probably have to be debriefed, but I’m way down here and I'm seeing him climb on that roof,” the officer said at 6:53 p.m.

“I seen him climb up one of these two peaks on the edge,” the officer continued. “He came across. PSP [Pennsylvania State Police] starts rolling this way through the grass. He comes up, he disappears between two buildings.”

The officer said the state troopers initially said they could not find Crooks, but two local officers shortly got a view of him on the roof. “They got up on there and said, 'Long gun!'”

SWAT officers scan the roof line at the American Glass Research complex for any sign of would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks a few minutes after Crooks shot former President Donald J. Trump on July 13.Butler Township Police Department via Judicial Watch

The officer said merely spotting the man on the roof should have been a cue to remove Trump from the stage. “When I see someone running across the roof, they probably should have got Trump right off the stage,” he said. “I was calling it. Not my call.”

Crooks was fully exposed while running with a black bag containing his AR-15-style rifle along the AGR roof, a clear indicator that he was an identifiable threat much earlier than acknowledged by the U.S. Secret Service. Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe Jr. said during a U.S. Senate hearing that Crooks was identified as a threat mere “seconds” before he opened fire.

The new bodycam gives another angle to Crooks' rooftop run that was also captured on cell phone video from shooting victim James Copenhaver, who was seated in the bleachers behind former President Trump. Copenhaver's video shows Crooks making his way south on the AGR roof before settling into his shooting stance.

Dashcam video from a Butler Township Police Department squad car indicates Crooks' first shot was fired at 6:11:32 p.m., slightly earlier than initial reports.

The bodycam videos show squad cars racing toward the AGR complex at 6:08 p.m., just as Crooks was climbing onto the roof. It appears Crooks accessed the roof by climbing on air-conditioning equipment alongside AGR Building 2 just after 6:08 p.m. Crooks then picked up his black Swiss Gear bag, stood up, and began running south to the other side of the complex, bodycam video showed.

With Crooks fully upright in his run toward his deadly perch, he did not appear worried about being picked off by a sniper.

'It is not impossible this kid did it on his own, but it’s as close to impossible as you can get.'

An experienced sniper told Blaze News it appears Crooks' route was carefully chosen to make it unlikely he would be seen by counter-snipers as he approached Building 6. “He had to have a planned route,” said the sniper, who is often called on to train snipers for the Secret Service, SWAT, and sniper teams at many federal agencies, and tactical teams at state and local law enforcement agencies.

“That really worries me,” the source said, “because this shows coordination.”

The vantage point of the Secret Service counter-sniper teams posted on the roof of the red barns behind the event stage was blocked to the north by trees that would have made it difficult to see Crooks' travel path and him prone in a shooting stance, he said.

The snipers located inside the second floor of AGR Building 3 had their weapons trained toward potential threats in the event crowd, so they would not have seen Crooks approach on the other side of the roof, he said.

Crooks' chosen roof route might explain the 11-minute drone flight he conducted beginning about 3:50 p.m. that day, the expert said. The FBI said Crooks flew a drone about 200 yards from the event stage and was apparently live-streaming his flight. No videos or photos of the flight were found on the device, the FBI said.

Local police SWAT operators scramble to get access to the American Glass Research Building 6 roof minutes after would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire on former President Donald J. Trump on July 13.Butler Township Police Department via Judicial Watch

Based on geolocation tracking done by the Oversight Project at the Heritage Foundation, it is believed Crooks visited the Butler Farm Show site on July 4 and July 8. A phone associated with Crooks traveled from his hometown of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, to Butler on those dates, the Oversight Project reported July 22. That phone stopped operating on July 12.

“He was looking for his path because things on the ground might have changed,” the sniper told Blaze News. “He was looking to verify his path.”

The new bodycam footage caused the sniper expert to lean even more toward a belief Crooks had help.

“I’m just telling you, it is not impossible this kid did it on his own, but it’s as close to impossible as you can get,” the source said. “The highest degree of improbability.”

Crooks had the presence of mind to aim his weapon at a Butler Township police officer who peered above the roof line then return to his perch and still pull off his deadly shooting, the expert said.

“This guy was prepped,” he said.

A local police counter-sniper had flagged Crooks as a suspicious person 90 minutes before the shooting, and another photographed Crooks at 5:14 p.m.

At 5:45 p.m.— 26 minutes before the shooting — the Secret Service was provided with two photos of Crooks by local police and advised he was seen using a range finder on the grounds. Local police told the Secret Service they were searching for the man, who was seen “lurking around the AGR building.”

The Secret Service told congressional committees in July that Crooks was not deemed a threat until he began firing at Trump and the crowd. It appears the Secret Service command center did not hear the multiple local police radio transmissions that first warned Crooks was on the roof and later warned that he had a “long gun.”

The Secret Service did not post personnel in the local police command center for the Trump event. According to U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin), local police radios provided to the Secret Service were never used. A trooper or troopers from the Pennsylvania State Police were in the Secret Service security room, but it's unclear what information if any they passed on about the manhunt for Crooks that was going on while Trump was speaking.

“The video recorded by the rally-goer who was shot twice [James Copenhaver] was taken at 6:08 p.m. -- three minutes before the shots were fired," Johnson told Blaze News. "Now we know that at the same time, local law enforcement radioed that they too saw Crooks on the AGR building roof."

“But because radio communications were siloed that day," he continued, "we do not know whether the Secret Service counter sniper teams were made aware of Crooks’ position before the first shots were fired. Unfortunately, the federal agencies that could answer this question are not being transparent.”

Anger at the Secret Service

The bodycam showed one local officer's anger at the Secret Service for not putting agents on the roof of the AGR complex. One Butler Township patrol officer said there had been a meeting about site security four days in advance of Trump's speech.

“I f***ing told them they need to post the guys f***ing over here,” the officer told Butler Township Police Sgt. Jim Sasse. “I told them at the f***ing — the Secret Service — I told them that f***ing Tuesday. I told them to post f***ing guys over here.”

The officer was still upset 10 minutes later when he approached a SWAT team operator from the Butler County Emergency Services Unit. “I f***ing told the Secret Service, post a f***ing guy over here. I told them that f***ing at the meeting on Tuesday.”

At one point, the officer indicates Secret Service told him they would ensure the roof was covered.

“That’s why when I talked to the Secret Service guys, they’re like, 'Yeah, no problem. We’re going to post guys over here,'” the officer said.

Blaze News reached out to the U.S. Secret Service for comment, but did not receive a reply by press time.

Another Butler Township officer guarding the northern perimeter of the AGR complex after the shooting told a co-worker: “I'd say this is a f*** up. Somebody f***ed up.”

One Butler Township Police Department officer got a boost from Butler Township patrolman David Tedeski at 6:10:49 p.m. and hoisted himself up just north of where Crooks was setting up to fire on the crowd. He quickly dropped to the ground when he said Crooks pointed a rifle at him.

Bodycam shows the officer then sprinted around to the south side of the building to try to spot the gunman from the ground. The audio on the officer's bodycam was muted, so it's not clear what if anything he said to other officers during this key period.

The hours of bodycam showed chaos in the minutes after the shooting as police on the ground tried to access the roof. A SWAT operator reached the roof and tried to confront Crooks. “Let me see your hands!” the SWAT officer shouted at 6:16 p.m.

Records obtained by U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) from the Clairton Sportsman's Club in Pittsburgh showed that Crooks visited the shooting range for rifle practice 43 times between Aug. 31, 2023, and July 12, 2024 — the day before the Butler shooting. Crooks renewed his junior-under 21 membership in August 2023, writing check No. 153 for $30, according to a form released by Grassley's office.

A shooting register page from the Clairton Sportsmen's Club in Pittsburgh showed would-be assassin Thomas Crooks visited the rifle range for practice the day before the Trump shooting.U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa)

According to the shooting register, Crooks went to the rifle range at 2:45 p.m. on July 12. He previously visited on May 7, May 22, June 19, and June 29, the register showed.

The popular Clairton Sportsman's Club is also where agents from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and other federal law enforcement go for training and practice, the records showed. Homeland held a police training range event at Clairton on May 23, the day after Crooks visited the rifle range, the records showed.

Grassley sent a letter to acting Director Rowe on Aug. 9 sharing a complaint from local police that a photograph he used in his Senate testimony was inaccurate and misrepresented where the local counter-sniper teams were stationed in AGR Building 3.

During his testimony, Rowe strongly suggested it was local counter-snipers' fault for not spotting Crooks, claiming local police told the Secret Service during a “face-to-face” meeting the afternoon of July 13 that they would cover the roof where Crooks eventually set up for his attack.

In his letter to Rowe, Grassley asked the acting director to specify who was at the “face-to-face” meeting and who from local police told him they would cover the Building 6 roof. He also asked Rowe to explain the officer's comments on bodycam that he told Secret Service at a meeting July 9 to “post f***ing guys over here.”

Rowe was told to supply answers to Grassley's questions before Aug. 16.

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