The gunman who attempted to assassinate Donald Trump fired eight clear shots at the former president before Secret Service snipers took him out, new video reveals.

Thomas Crooks, 20, opened fire on Trump’s campaign event in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13 from a rooftop just 400ft away from the stage where he was speaking. Trump was shot in the ear, one rallygoer was killed and another was wounded.

New footage of the incident has revealed Crooks launched bullets from his AR-15-style rifle into the rally in under six seconds before snipers fired two counter shots, including the one that killed him.

Terrified witnesses near the AGR building where Crooks had positioned himself were screaming and frantically running for their lives as the rapid fire shots rang out, the video obtained by Fox News showed.

Crooks then pointed his gun towards the crowd just seconds before the second sniper shot, witness John Malice, who captured the video, has claimed.

Malice, a military veteran, also revealed all the people who watched by the AGR were not ‘vetted’ and did not go through metal detectors – despite having a clear view of the former president – because they were outside outside the rally site.

Malice claims that witnesses began to notice Crooks scaling the building ‘about two minutes before the shooting started’.

He recalled how some bystanders noted how he was ‘climbing up here’ and ‘crawling around’, but told Fox that ‘we just kind of ignored it because we thought it was some person trying to get a better view’.

However, the crowd’s response quickly changed after Crooks was spotted with a gun just moments before he fired at Trump.

‘Let’s get out of here’, one witness screamed as the crowd frantically rushed through the field, Malice’s video showed. Another yelled: ‘He’s got a gun on the roof.’ 

The footage shows dozens of people screaming and trying to flee as eight discharges, fired in approximately 5.2 seconds, ring out.

Two final gunshots are then heard. The first counter shot, which insiders said came from a local sniper, was was fired roughly 5.5 seconds after Crooks opened fire.

He then stopped firing, which audio analysts claim indicates he had been struck. The Secret Service sniper’s shot came 10 seconds later, CBS News reported. 

Crooks was killed by law enforcement. The motive for the shooting remains unclear. 

‘Right before he was shot by Secret Service, he had rolled over, got up,’ Malice recalled. ‘I have a picture of him with his rifle up and his rifle turned towards me and the other guys that were standing behind the tree – and at that second Secret Service shot him.’ 

Malice also voiced concerns over the lack of security at the event site, telling Fox News: ‘One of the first things I noticed when we walked up, none of us have been vetted. We’re all along the fence. We all have view of the stage. We can see Trump.’

Two local law enforcement officers stationed in the complex of buildings where Crooks had opened fire at Trump left to go search for him before the shooting, the head of Pennsylvania State Police revealed Tuesday.

Pennsylvania State Police Col. Christopher Paris told a congressional committee that two Butler County Emergency Services Unit officers were stationed at a second-floor window in the complex of buildings that form AGR International Inc. 

They spotted Crooks acting suspiciously on the ground and left their post to look for him along with other law enforcement officers, he said.

Paris said he didn’t know whether officers would have been able to see Crooks climbing onto the roof of an adjacent building had they remained at the window.

A video taken by a lawmaker who visited the shooting site on Monday shows a second-story window of the building had a clear view of the roof where Crooks opened fire; it was unclear if the video showed the window where the officers had been stationed.

The Pennsylvania State Police commissioner’s testimony before the House Homeland Security Committee provides new insight into security preparations for the Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13, but raises further questions about law enforcement’s decisions before Crooks opened fire.

Local law enforcement began to search for Crooks after they noticed him acting strangely and saw him with a rangefinder, a small device resembling binoculars that hunters use to measure distance from a target. 

Officers didn’t find him around the building and a local officer climbed up to the roof to investigate. The gunman turned and pointed his rifle at him. 

The officer did not – or could not – fire a single shot. Crooks opened fire toward the former president seconds later, officials have said.

Authorities have been hunting for clues into what motivated Crooks but have not found any ideological bent that could provide motive for his actions. 

Investigators who searched his phone found photos of Trump, President Joe Biden and other senior government officials. 

He also searched for the dates for the Democratic National Conventional as well as Trump’s appearances and searched for information about major depressive disorder.

Meanwhile, Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle stepped down on Tuesday amid growing calls to resign and several investigations into the assassination attempt.

Cheatle’s resignation came a day after she appeared before a congressional committee and was berated for hours by both Democrats and Republicans for the security failures. 

She acknowledged that the Secret Service was told about a suspicious person two to five times before the shooting, but there was no indication at that time that he had a weapon. 

She also revealed that the roof from which Crooks opened fire had been identified as a potential vulnerability days before the rally. 

Cheatle said Trump would never have been brought onto the stage had Secret Service been aware there was an ‘actual threat,’ but Crooks wasn’t deemed to be a ‘threat’ until seconds before he began shooting.

She called the attempt on Trump’s life the Secret Service’s ‘most significant operational failure’ in decades, but angered lawmakers by failing to answer specific questions about the investigation. 

Cheatle, who had served as Secret Service director since August 2022, in her resignation letter said she took ‘full responsibility for the security lapse’ that led to Crooks being able to get so close to Trump. 

The Homeland Security Committee had also asked her to testify but lawmakers said she refused. Cheatle’s name was on a card on a table in front of an empty chair during the hearing Tuesday, which began shortly before her decision to step down became public. 

Now, FBI Director Christopher Wray will face questions from Congress on Wednesday over the assassination attempt.

He is due to appear before the House Judiciary Committee at 10am to answer questions about the FBI’s investigation of Crooks.

But while Wray is likely to hear demands for details of the incident on Wednesday, the shooting probe could be overshadowed by partisan divisions within the committee.

The FBI director has long faced opposition from hardline Republicans, some angered over the arrest of Trump supporters who stormed the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as Congress certified President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory. 

‘I would like to hear the truth. But I doubt it that’s what we will hear,’ said Republican Representative Harriet Hageman, a Judiciary Committee member who said she would like to see Wray resign as FBI chief.

‘They have circled the wagons and they’re going to try to prevent us from getting the information that we need,’ she said.

Judiciary Committee Democrats predicted that the hearing was unlikely to be productive.

‘I’m expecting him to talk about how he’s doing his best to keep our country safe. But as you know, it’s the Judiciary Committee, so we will have all sorts of sparks fly,’ Democratic Representative Deborah Ross said. ‘It’s never a productive exercise in Judiciary. It’s always a ‘gotcha’ game.’