This is the moment police arrived at the truck of Donald Trump shooter Thomas Crooks, which he had abandoned on a side street near the fairgrounds in Butler, Pennsylvania, where the former president’s rally was held on Saturday.
The footage, obtained exclusively by DailyMail.com, clearly shows officers searching the battered white vehicle from which they removed the explosives after their K9 unit led them through fields to their location.
Local resident and Billy’s husband Cheyenne Thoma, who filmed the footage, told DailyMail.com: “We could hear the dogs barking in the fields. Apparently they picked up his scent and that’s what led them to the van.”
Thoma revealed that investigators later requested doorbell footage from the family home and later discovered that it had not been recording earlier that day.
Another person told DailyMail.com they did not realise who the van belonged to or its significance in the shocking events of Saturday afternoon until much later.
Officers searched the battered white vehicle from which they removed the explosives after their K9 unit led them through fields to its location.
Local resident Cheyenne Thoma, whose husband Billy filmed the footage, told DailyMail.com that the dogs had picked up her scent.
The owner, who asked not to be named, said: “We were just told it was a suspicious vehicle and that was it. It’s really shocking to think how close everything was to us.”
Other images recorded by Thoma show the white vehicle, with its rear doors apparently damaged with primer applied, being removed on a tow truck in the early hours of Sunday morning.
The gunmen, seen here in 2021, climbed onto the roof of a building near the rally and shot Trump, while also killing retired volunteer fire chief Corey Comperatore.
A police car follows the road as investigators conduct the early stages of the ongoing investigation into 20-year-old Crooks, his motivations and how he managed to get close enough to fire what was nearly a fatal shot at former President Trump.
After police caught the would-be killer, a remote detonator was found next to his cell phone.
An image first published by Pittsburgh’s WPXI He showed the detonator, a rectangular gray device with a keypad similar to a television remote control.
The 20-year-old has also since appeared in disturbing footage taken just an hour before he unleashed a volley of gunfire at Trump’s rally.
In the harrowing video, Crooks does not appear to be holding the AR-style rifle he had used to shoot Trump in the ear.
The cameraman said he had been trying to capture the large crowd waiting to see the Republican candidate speak, but then realized he had captured a more terrifying detail in the background.
Crooks is believed to have been firing from about 165 yards away when his bullet struck Trump in the right ear. The former president is pictured immediately after the shooting
The last photograph of suspected assassin Thomas Crooks, taken less than an hour before he was shot and killed by a Secret Service sniper. The photo was circulated among law enforcement as a suspicious sighting at the Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Trump was still wearing the bandage on his injured ear when he appeared at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on Wednesday.
After police caught the suspected killer, a remote detonator, seen here, was found next to his cell phone.
It has also since emerged that the gunman’s father called police on the day of the shooting after Crooks failed to return from a routine trip to a local shooting range.
As his worried family made calls to police, Crooks climbed onto the roof of a building near the rally and shot Trump, while also killing retired volunteer fire chief Corey Comperatore.
Crooks had told his boss he needed the day off work on Saturday and gave his colleagues one last chilling message: that he would return on Sunday.
Crooks is believed to have been firing from about 165 yards away when his bullet hit Trump in the right ear.
The latest explosive developments raised further questions about the massive security failures that led to the attempted assassination of the former president.
The FBI said it was investigating it as a possible act of domestic terrorism, but the lack of a clear ideological motive led to conspiracy theories flourishing.
Investigators believe Crooks acted alone and have confirmed there is no social media presence to indicate the attack was politically motivated.