Former SEAL Congressman Releases Video From Rooftop Where Thomas Crooks Shot Trump, Highlighting Scale of Secret Service Failure
![Former SEAL Congressman Releases Video From Rooftop Where Thomas Crooks Shot Trump, Highlighting Scale of Secret Service Failure Former SEAL Congressman Releases Video From Rooftop Where Thomas Crooks Shot Trump, Highlighting Scale of Secret Service Failure](https://i0.wp.com/nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/repelicrane-video-taken-one-windows-85839045.jpg?quality=75&strip=all&w=1024&w=1024&resize=1024,682&ssl=1)
A former Navy SEAL congressman demonstrated the true gravity of the Secret Service’s failure to protect former President Trump by broadcasting from the rooftop where would-be assassin Thomas Crooks opened fire.
“I’m up there on the building where the alleged sniper shot. It’s not that steep at all, we just had a 70-year-old man easily get up on the roof,” Arizona Rep. Eli Crane said in a video shared on X Monday.
“See that water tower behind me? If the Secret Service or anybody else had sniper teams out there, that guy wouldn’t have gotten five feet off that roof. He would have been shot,” Crane added. “You wonder why they couldn’t get rid of that guy quickly.”
Crane also released a video taken through a second-floor office window overlooking the roof, to which law enforcement had access and through which Crooks should have been easily spotted as he secured his position before firing multiple shots at the former president.
Beyond the rooftop perch, the scene where Trump spoke is clearly visible, reinforcing the increasingly puzzling question of how law enforcement failed to secure the rooftop or stop Crooks as he attempted to assassinate the former president.
“This video was taken from one of the windows that the Secret Service had access to, overlooking the entire roof,” Crane wrote alongside the video. “As you can see, they had complete coverage.”
“You wonder how they allowed the shooter to get to the roof, let alone climb up on it and fire multiple shots,” Crane added.
The rooftop from which Crooks fired was part of a facility used by local law enforcement as a staging area for security outside the perimeter of the farmland where Trump was speaking, law enforcement sources previously told The Post.
Snipers from local police units were even supposed to be on the roof, but the units were not present when he walked up to the roof and opened fire.
The Secret Service had also designated Crooks as a “threat” 10 minutes before Trump took the stage around 6 p.m. that day — and had been warned that a “suspicious character” was lurking around the rally venue more than an hour earlier.
Several witnesses reported seeing Crooks in the area with a ladder or a rifle, and as he climbed onto the roof of AGR International and crawled into position with his weapon, numerous passersby called for help to no avail.
Local police had been tasked with securing the grounds outside the farm’s perimeter, but had warned the Secret Service in advance that they did not have the manpower to properly guard the building.
Despite knowing that the structure, located just 130 meters from the stage, could not be secured, the Secret Service still allowed the rally to go ahead as planned.
At a hearing Monday on the Secret Service’s colossal blunder at the Trump rally, Director Kimberly Cheatle called the debacle “the agency’s most significant operational failure in decades” — but still gave the agents an “A” grade for their performance that day.
Crooks was shot moments after opening fire, but not before hitting Trump in the ear and firing enough bullets into the crowd to kill one bystander and wound two others.
The motivation for the assassination remains unclear and is under investigation.