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New video shows gunman outside Trump rally site before July shooting
Newly surfaced video footage shows Thomas Matthew Crooks walking outside the grounds of the Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, less than two hours before he opened fire on July 13.
The four-second clip shows 20-year-old Crooks walking by a row of vendor tents selling Trump merchandise. The footage was captured by Joe Tomko, who owns Iron Clad USA, a merchandise company. Tomko said he has sent the video to the FBI.
CBS News confirmed the footage was captured outside the secure perimeter of the rally. The video’s timestamp indicates it was filmed at 4:26 p.m. — one hour and 45 minutes before Crooks opened fire.
The video places Crooks around half a mile away from the AGR building that he later used as his firing position. A countersniper from a local tactical team photographed Crooks outside the AGR building less than an hour after this video was filmed, at around 5:14 p.m.
FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate said before Congress that the first reported sighting of Crooks by local law enforcement was at approximately 4:26 p.m. Text messages released by Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley showed a local countersniper texted his colleagues about a suspicious person close to the AGR building at around 4:26 p.m. However, this footage places Crooks in a different location, around half a mile away from the AGR building, at that time.
It’s unclear if the suspicious person the countersniper saw near the AGR building was in fact Crooks. CBS News has reached out to the FBI and local officials to clarify.
The video also provides insight into Crooks’ movements between when he flew a drone close to the rally site and when he was photographed outside the AGR building after 5 p.m.
FBI Director Christopher Wray testified before House lawmakers in July that the FBI believed Crooks flew a drone roughly 200 yards away from the stage at around 3:50 p.m. for approximately 11 minutes. “It appears that around 3:50 p.m., 4:00, in that window, on the day of the shooting, that the shooter was flying the drone around the area,” Wray said.
Wray said law enforcement investigators recovered the drone in Crooks’ vehicle, and the bureau believes he was watching video streamed from the device to scout the area.
The local countersniper team reported seeing Crooks walking around the AGR building between 5:10 p.m. and 5:38 p.m., before law enforcement officers lost sight of him again. A little after 6 p.m., as Trump began speaking, Crooks climbed on the roof of the building and opened fire.
CBS News
Yellowstone hiker burned when she falls into scalding water near Old Faithful, park officials say
Yellowstone National Park, Wyo. — A New Hampshire woman suffered severe burns on her leg after hiking off-trail in Yellowstone National Park and falling into scalding water in a thermal area near the Old Faithful geyser, park officials said.
The 60-year-old woman from Windsor, New Hampshire, along with her husband and their leashed dog were walking off a designated trail near the Mallard Lake Trailhead on Monday afternoon when she broke through a thin crust over the water and suffered second- and third-degree burns to her lower leg, park officials said. Her husband and the dog weren’t injured.
The woman was flown to Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center in Idaho Falls, Idaho for treatment.
National Park Service / Jacob W. Frank
Park visitors are reminded to stay on boardwalks and trails in hydrothermal areas and exercise extreme caution. The ground in those areas is fragile and thin and there’s scalding water just below the surface, park officials said.
Pets are allowed in limited, developed areas of Yellowstone park but are prohibited on boardwalks, hiking trails, in the backcountry and in thermal areas.
The incident is under investigation. The woman’s name wasn’t made public.
This is the first known thermal injury in Yellowstone in 2024, park officials said in a statement. The park had recorded 3.5 million visitors through August this year.
Hot springs have injured and killed more people in Yellowstone National Park than any other natural feature, the National Park Service said. At least 22 people have died from hot spring-related injuries in and around the 3,471-square-mile national park since 1890, park officials have said.
TRENTON, N.J. — Democratic Newark City Council President LaMonica McIver has defeated Republican small businessman Carmen Bucco in a contest in New Jersey’s 10th Congressional District that opened up because of the death of Rep. Donald Payne Jr. in April.
McIver will serve out the remainder of Payne’s term, which ends in January. She and Bucco will face a rematch on the November ballot for the full term.
McIver said in a statement Wednesday that she stands on the “shoulders of giants,” naming Payne as chief among them.
She cast ahead to the November election, saying the right to make reproductive health choices was on the ballot as well as whether the economy should benefit the wealthy or “hard working Americans.”
“I will fight because the purpose of politics and the purpose of our vote is to give the people of our communities and our nation a bold voice,” she said.
Bucco congratulated McIver on the victory in a statement but said he’s looking forward to the rematch in November.
“I am not going anywhere,” he said in an email. “We still have a second chance to make district 10 great again!”
Who are LaMonica McIver and Carmen Bucco?
McIver emerged as the Democratic candidate in a crowded field in the July special election. A member of the city council of New Jersey’s biggest city since 2018, she also worked for Montclair Public Schools as a personnel director and plans to focus on affordability, infrastructure, abortion rights and “protecting our democracy,” she told The Associated Press earlier this summer.
Bucco describes himself on his campaign website as a small-business owner influenced by his upbringing in the foster system. He lists support for law enforcement and ending corruption as top issues.
The 10th District lies in a heavily Democratic and majority-Black region of northern New Jersey. Republicans are outnumbered by more than 6 to 1.
It’s been a volatile year for Democrats in New Jersey, where the party dominates state government and the congressional delegation.
Among the developments were the conviction on federal bribery charges of U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, who has denied the charges, and the demise of the so-called county party line — a system in which local political leaders give their preferred candidates favorable position on the primary ballot.
Democratic Rep. Andy Kim, who’s running for Menendez’s seat, and other Democrats brought a federal lawsuit challenging the practice as part of his campaign to oust Menendez, who has resigned since his conviction.
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Yellowstone hiker burned when she falls into scalding water near Old Faithful, park officials say
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Yellowstone hiker burned when she falls into scalding water near Old Faithful, park officials say
Wagon rolls over at Wisconsin apple orchard injuring about 25 children and adults