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New video shows gunmen outside Trump rally site before July shooting

Newly emerged video footage shows Thomas Matthew Crooks Walk outside the grounds of the Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, less than two hours before he opened fire on July 13th.

The four-second clip shows Crooks, 20, walking past a row of stalls selling Trump products. The footage was provided by Joe Tomko, owner of merchandise company Iron Clad USA. Tomko said he sent the video to the FBI.

CBS News confirmed that the footage was taken outside the rally’s security perimeter. The video’s timestamp shows it was taken at 4:26 p.m. – an hour and 45 minutes before Crooks opened fire.

The video shows Crooks about a half-mile from the AGR building, which he later used as a firing position. A sniper from a local tactical team photographed Crooks in front of the AGR building less than an hour after this video was shot, at approximately 5:14 p.m.

FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate told Congress that the first reported sighting of Crooks by local law enforcement occurred at approximately 4:26 p.m. Text messages released by Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley show a local sniper texting his colleagues about a suspicious person near the AGR building at around 4:26 p.m. However, this footage places Crooks at a different location at that time, about half a mile from the AGR building.

It is unclear if the suspicious person the sniper saw near the AGR building was actually Crooks. CBS News has reached out to the FBI and local authorities for clarification.

The video also provides insight into Crooks’ movements between the time he flew a drone near the rally site and the time he was photographed outside the AGR building after 5 p.m.

FBI Director Christopher Wray attested to House members in July that the FBI believes Crooks flew a drone about 200 yards from the stage for about 11 minutes at about 3:50 p.m. “It appears that during that time period on the day of the shooting at 3:50 p.m., 4 p.m., the shooter was flying the drone around the area,” Wray said.

Wray said law enforcement investigators found the drone in Crooks’ vehicle, and the FBI believes he was watching video streamed from the device to scout the area.

The local sniper team reported seeing Crooks walking around the AGR building between 5:10 p.m. and 5:38 p.m. before police officers lost sight of him again. Shortly after 6 p.m.As Trump began his speech, Crooks climbed onto the roof of the building and opened fire.

By Bronte

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