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Newly released video footage from a rally attendee, Jon Malis, shows the assassination attempt on former President Trump during a campaign event in Butler, Pennsylvania.
The footage captures the shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, who fired eight shots at Trump before being killed by sniper fire.
Malis commented on the lack of security at the event, noting that attendees did not go through metal detectors despite being in close proximity to the stage.
He noted that he initially disregarded warnings from others about Crooks climbing a building to take a shot.
“I noticed about two minutes before the shooting started, the people were starting to say, ‘hey, he’s climbing up here, he’s crawling around, he’s doing this, he’s doing that,” Malis said. “We just kind of ignored it because we thought it was some person trying to get a better view.”
After the event, Malis reviewed his recordings and found evidence of Crooks approaching the site without any apparent weapons.
He expressed surprise that the Secret Service did not have personnel stationed on the roof where Crooks had positioned himself.
“I want to say three, then maybe five [rounds were heard],” he added. “And then I heard the two counter sniper rounds.”
“One of the first things I noticed when we walked up, none of us have been vetted,” he said. “We’re all along the fence. We all have view of the stage. We can see Trump.”
“We were just looking for parking because everything was blocked off,” Malis said. “But this particular road here, I noticed a lot of cars were parking there. So we just kept driving around and we thought it was safe. And, as I was going back to my videos later, I noticed somebody who looked like crooks crossing the street and zoomed in on it.”
“Turned out it really was him,” he said. “So it’s a video of him, we think leaving his vehicle. There was a gray Hyundai, looked like a Sonata, that was parked there … He wasn’t carrying anything. He was just in his, you know, just his regular clothes. No backpack or anything. Just walking to the building. And then about two minutes after that, somebody else shot a video of him on that side of the building, through the fence.”
“Right before he was shot by Secret Service, he had rolled over, got up,” he said. “I have a picture of him with his rifle up and his rifle turned towards me and the other guys that were standing behind the tree, and at that second Secret Service shot him.”
One victim was killed and several others injured during the shooting.