Trump shooting: Viral footage appears to show Secret Service agent spotting shooter but failing to engage

As the FBI, investigating the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump at an election rally in Pennsylvania, expresses surprise at how the shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks found a location to fire shots against Trump, footage going viral on social media shows a Secret Service Agent spotting the assailant just seconds before the shots were fired.

However, he failed to engage the shooter as the bullets from Crooks grazed through Trump in the next second.

Also going viral is the video of Crooks perched on the roof of a nearby building, opening fire. Though FBI officials did not confirm the authenticity of the video, NBC quoted sources which confirmed it as being from the scene of the shooting. Visuals of him dead, with a bullet wound on his head too surfaced later. He appeared to be wearing a grey T-shirt with an American flag on the sleeve with block lettering that is partly obscured.

Ironically, the T-shirt appeared to be matching the ones on sale on the website of the firearms YouTube channel Demolition Ranch. Demolition Ranch has over 11 million subscribers on YouTube, where the channel frequently posts videos about various types of firearms. 

ALSO READ: Trump was just minutes into his speech when shots rang. How the assassination bid unfolded | Photos

FBI Special Agent Kevin Rojek, who runs the Pittsburgh office said it was surprising how Crooks managed to get on to the spot. "It is surprising, but again to get all the details of that will come out later in the investigation," he told reporters.

Law enforcement officials said Crooks fired the shot about 148 yards from where Trump was speaking. The area was outside the perimeter, according to Pennsylvania State Police Lt. Col. George Bivens, who added that the Secret Service had a difficult challenge to lock down the entire rally location against any possible threat. "It is incredibly difficult to have a venue open to the public and to secure that against any possible threat against a very determined attacker," Bivens told reporters. "That’s a huge lift to try to do."

However, Jim Cavanaugh, a retired special agent in charge with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives who has been on Secret Service details, told NBC that the norm is that every high ground will be taken by security detail.

Expressing surprise that the shooter was able to occupy an elevated position within rifle range of the rally site, he added: "Whenever I’ve been with them, every single high ground is taken by them or the local SWAT police," Cavanaugh said. "There’s nobody allowed walking on rooftops. They command the high ground."

Meanwhile, a new video shows Trump walking down the steps of his plane unassisted at an airport in Newark.