Gunman Who Shot Trump Was Not Spotted as Early as Reported

A law enforcement officer at the rally where the former president was shot now says he misidentified a man he saw earlier that day as Thomas Crooks.

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Video shows Thomas Crooks, in a grey shirt and shorts, walking around the Butler Farm Show grounds at 4:26 p.m. on the day of the attempted assassination.Credit

A local law enforcement officer recently told investigators that he was mistaken when he said that the man he spotted near a warehouse complex more than 100 minutes before former President Donald J. Trump was shot at a rally in Butler, Pa., was the gunman.

The officer’s admission came after a video showed that the man he saw could not have been the gunman.

The officer, a sniper with the Beaver County Emergency Services unit, said he saw a man at the July 13 event at a picnic table near the warren of warehouses that a gunman used later that day to shoot at and graze Mr. Trump. After a U.S. Secret Service countersniper shot and killed the gunman, Thomas Crooks, the local officer believed he was the same man he had seen earlier.

But according to an Aug. 30 news release from the office of Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, the sniper said in subsequent interviews — following the release of contrary documentary evidence — that he realized the man he had seen at the picnic table at the Butler Farm Show was someone other than Mr. Crooks.

While the clarification does not change the fact that the gunman stayed a step ahead of the U.S. Secret Service in the hours leading up to his attempt on Mr. Trump’s life, it reduces the time from about 90 minutes to 60 minutes between when law enforcement officers first spotted him and when he crawled on to a warehouse roof and started shooting.

The officer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the continuing investigations, spotted a man near the picnic table at 4:26 p.m. as he was leaving the warehouse complex, owned by AGR International. The officer texted his colleagues who were still in the building to say that the man saw him exit and therefore most likely knew that additional officers were stationed in there.

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