A newly released video from one of the victims wounded during the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump appears to contradict testimony from Secret Service Acting Director Ronald Rowe.
James Copenhaver, 74, who was critically wounded when Thomas Crooks, 20, fired several shots at Trump, was taking a video with his cellphone of Trump's speech from behind the former president. In addition to striking Copenhaver and Trump, Crooks also wounded David Dutch, 57, and killed 50-year-old Corey Comperatore.
Copenhaver's video was taken at 6:08 p.m. during the July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. The video, first obtained by Fox New Digital, shows a person appear on the roof of the building across from where Trump is speaking and can be seen walking from the 1:00 second mark to the 2:50 second mark. Officials believe Crooks began shooting with a collapsible AR-15-style rifle 3 minutes later at approximately 6:11 pm.
During his testimony before Senate leaders on Tuesday, Rowe showed pictures of his agents lying in a prone position to reenact what countersnipers saw, yet the video shows the individual upright and walking into position.
Copenhaver's attorney, Joseph Feldman, said his client stopped filming at the moment when the crowd turned their heads to look at the projector screen where Trump had posted immigration talking points. According to his family, Copenhaver was shot twice, once in the arm and once in his abdomen.
"He had almost seen or heard something whiz past him, which we're assuming was a bullet. He felt it on his arm, and he looked down at his arm ... and felt pain initially, but he hadn't even realized he had been shot a second time at that point. It could have been shock," Feldman said of Copenhaver.
The FBI says it is still trying to determine Crooks' motive behind his assassination attempt.
James Morley III ✉
James Morley III is a writer with more than two decades of experience in entertainment, travel, technology, and science and nature.
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