Does This Video Show Thomas Crooks Walking On The Roof?

[Z.W. Wolf]

New footage has been shown on the Fox Network. It seems to show Thomas Crooks walking, not crawling, on the roof and taking a look at Trump 165 seconds before he takes the first shot.



This Channel 4 (British) video shows synchronized footage from various cameras. The earliest footage of Crooks on the roof shows him lying prone on the roof at 6:09:44 local time. (18:09:44 local time)

At nine minutes past 6:00, people listening to Trump from outside the event start to panic. They all point, and by using the audio from the footage, we're able to match it to the exact moment in Trump's speech when the crowd spots Crooks, who is now lying down on the roof of the building. Less than two minutes before the first shots are fired, the footage shows police walking around the building, seemingly unable to see what the onlookers can.

"There he is, right there." "Where?" "Right there, you see him? He's laying down." "Yeah, he's laying down."

This is the earliest footage, in this video, showing Crooks on the roof. Crooks is prone on the roof, at the lower edge, which would seem to imply that this is his earliest position after getting up on the roof.

The new footage, however, shows him looking at Trump over the peak of the roof at an earlier time. At 18:08:48; fifty five seconds earlier. (The audio portion of the video suggests people were seeing Crooks several seconds earlier.) The roof has a shallow slope, so I don't think he's close to the peak as he's briskly walking (or jogging.) He's probably walking along the far edge of the roof. This implies that Crooks walked about, then later lay prone. Maybe he realized how exposed he was.


The New Video was taken with a telephoto lens... or digitally zoomed by an editor. The image shows compression distortion. (Everything looks strangely flat, or compressed.) Could this be someone else, walking on the roof of a building just behind the first building? Is this just an optical illusion? Just looking at it, that doesn't make sense.

The timeline says, "Not likely". Was someone else walking, on whatever roof in the area, 55 seconds before Crooks is seen lying prone in the Channel 4 video? That doesn't seem to compute.

Put the visual evidence and the timeline together, and it doesn't seem credible that this is anyone other than Thomas Crooks.

Does the New Video show Crooks walking on the roof and taking a look at Trump 165 seconds before he takes the first shot?: Plausible

Probability: High

Timeline:

6:08 and 39 seconds - Crooks is walking briskly on the roof

6:08 and 48 seconds - Crooks is looking at Trump over the peak of the roof

6:09 and 44 seconds - Crooks is lying prone at the bottom edge of the roof

6:11 and 33 seconds - Crooks takes first shot


How to determine the timeline?



In the above short excerpt, Trump is heard to say...

... the world will see a vibrant Republican party...

At that moment we see Crooks looking at Trump over the peak of the roof.


In this video of the complete speech, Trump says these same words...

... the world will see a vibrant Republican party...

... at the 6:10 mark. (Not to be confused with local time. This is a video timestamp.)


At 8:55 in the Complete Speech Video, the first shot is heard.

The 8:55 timestamp in this video equals 18:11:33 (6:11:33 local time).

Proof...

In the Synchronized Video, the first shot is heard at 18:11:33 local time.

We've now synchronized the Complete Speech Video to local time, and by extension we've synchronized the New Video to local time.


In the Complete Speech Video, Trump says these words...

... the world will see a vibrant Republican party...

...165 seconds before the first shot is heard. Timestamp 8:55 minus timestamp 6:10 equals 165 seconds.

Which means he said these words165 seconds before 18:11:33 (6:11:33) local time. That means he said these words at about 18:08:48 local time.

Which means that Crooks was looking at Trump, and was easily visible to a camera in the right grandstand, at 18:08:48 local time. Two minutes and 45 seconds before he took the first shot at 18:11:33.

 

[Matt33]

In the new video, when he disappears and then reappears must be the moment when he is seen crawling on the roof by spectators, isn't it?

 

[Mendel]

Which means that Crooks was looking at Trump, and was easily visible to a camera in the right grandstand, at 18:08:48 local time. Two minutes and 45 seconds before he took the first shot at 18:11:33.

That approximately fits with when spectators saw him getting on the roof.

He'd then run along the far edge to a spot where he couldn't see the nearer sniper team (and they couldn't see him), then lie down and move up to his final position (because that makes for a more accurate shot than standing up). He then has the encounter with the cop peeking at him, before he fires his first volley.

 

[Z.W. Wolf]

You can use the text of Trump's speech to synchronize the videos..

This segment starts with the word "some." I'm calling this the Side View Video.

...some beautiful place with a gorgeous ocean...

Those words are spoken by Trump starting at the 6:56 timestamp in the Complete Speech Video.
He says "some" at 18:09:34 local time.

The Side View Video ends as Trump is saying "ever"

...the strongest border ever...

He says "ever" at the 7:45 Timestamp in the Complete Speech Video

The Side View Video starts at 18:09:34 and ends at 18:10:23.


We can refine this Timeline:

6:08 and 39 seconds - Crooks is walking briskly on the roof

6:08 and 48 seconds - Crooks is looking at Trump over the peak of the roof

6:09 and 44 seconds 6:09 and 34 seconds - Crooks is seen lying prone at the bottom edge of the roof by spectators near the end of the building.

6:10 and 23 seconds - Side View Video ends - Crooks is still seen prone in about the same spot, but just before the video ends Crooks is seen looking at the yelling spectators and then lunges forward a few feet, toward the peak of the roof .

6:11 and 33 seconds - Crooks takes first shot


There's a 46 second gap between the end of the New Video (Copenhaver's Video) and the start of the Side View Video.

There's a 70 second gap between the end of the Side View Video and the first shot.

 

[FatPhil]

You can use the text of Trump's speech to synchronize the videos..

To within about a second, as there's a hundred meters here and there separating the different recordings and the speed of sound alas prevents exact synchronisation unless you do fairly complex triangulation. (Some pedants would object to my use of that term and claim the correct term is "trilateration" or "multilateration", but I can build a triangle from three edge lengths better than you can build a triangle from just angles, so to me this is still a form of triangulation.)

 

[Z.W. Wolf]

More new video. This is cop bodycam footage of Crooks on the roof. The cop is on foot, moving west from near the water tower toward the east side of the AGR buildings.

In a digital zoom, we see Crooks on the roof. Crooks is not on the building from which he fired the shots. He starts out three buildings back. He used connecting structures to make his way from roof to roof.


This still frame shows proposed routes. I don't think either the blue or red line are correct. Crooks is seen in this new bodycam segment where the red line begins. He's on the roof of the lower connecting structure (hallway?). He throws the backpack and clambers up to the beginning of the red line. He walks on the red line but keeps walking well past where the red line makes the right angle turn in this diagram. He then flops, and the segment ends.

I don't think that he was visible at any time in this new segment, and at the same time in the Copenhaver Video. I think that came later after he crossed over the final time.

 

[Z.W. Wolf]

I think the purple line is where he continued to walk, and the x marks where he flopped, and that's where this new segment ends. What happened after that, I can't say.

This diagram shows that he was walking on the green line during the Copenhaver Video. But I think it's more likely that he was on the final building, to our left.


I think he was running along the edge of the roof along this new purple line, flopped at the purple x; got back up again to take a peak at Trump, then flopped again. He then crawled up along the orange line to the peak of the roof where the short green line segment is.

 

[Z.W. Wolf]

Now watch the time stamp. When it gets to 18:08:00 that's when we see him running across the roof by the two telephone poles...

We can further refine this Timeline:

6:08 and zero seconds - Crooks is first seen on the east side of the AGR buildings in this new Bodycam Video. He's climbing down from main roof onto lower roof of connecting hallway.

6:08 and 20 seconds - A report: "Someone's on the roof."

6:08 and 33 seconds - A report: "I have someone on the roof with white shorts"

6:08 and 39 seconds - Crooks is walking briskly on the roof in the Copenhaver video.

6:08 and 48 seconds - Crooks is last seen above the peak of the roof in the Copenhaver video.

6:09 and 34 seconds - Crooks is seen lying prone at the bottom edge of the roof by spectators near the west end of the building.

6:10 and 23 seconds - Side View Video ends - Crooks is still seen prone in about the same spot, but just before the video ends Crooks is seen looking at the yelling spectators and then lunges forward a few feet, toward the peak of the roof .

6:11 and 33 seconds - Crooks takes first shot

 

[Z.W. Wolf]

The maroon line shows the center of the frame in the Copenhaver video. The red line shows the path he took in the new Bodycam Video. His path did not cross the center of the frame.

Crooks crosses the center of the frame in the Copenhaver video. So the Bodycam and the Copenhaver videos cannot show Crooks at the same time. They are not simultaneous.