A video taken by James Copenhaver, one of the victims of the attempted assassination of former President Trump on July 13, shows a figure moving across the roof of the American Glass Research (AGR) building just minutes before the shooting at Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. The video captured at 6:08 p.m. on July 13 shows the person walking on the roof adjacent to where Trump was speaking. Three minutes after the video was taken, the gunman, Thomas Crooks, started shooting with an AR-15-style rifle. Counter snipers shot Crooks shortly after, and eight shell casings were found near his body.
In his attempt to assassinate Trump, Crooks killed Corey Comperatore and critically wounded Copenhaver and David Dutch. Comperatore was a husband, father, and former fire chief. Copenhaver was discharged from the hospital on July 26 but is still recovering in a rehabilitation center. He sustained injuries to his arm and abdominal area.
During the rally, Trump and attendees were looking at immigration statistics projected on a screen when the first shots rang out. Copenhaver felt something whiz past him, assumed to be a bullet, and realized he had been shot twice. The chaos and shock took some time for him to process.
FBI officials revealed that Crooks climbed HVAC equipment and piping to access the roof of the AGR building, where he had a direct line of sight to Trump. Leading up to the shooting, Crooks researched the distance between Lee Harvey Oswald and President Kennedy during the 1963 assassination. He spent time at the rally site and flew a drone near where Trump would be speaking. Law enforcement officials were aware of a suspicious person near the site before the shooting began.
The FBI is still investigating Crooks’ motive behind the shooting. The details of the attempted assassination continue to unfold as authorities piece together the events leading up to the tragic incident.