Body camera footage released Thursday shows police actions moments before and after the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump at a July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
The video, first reported by Fox News, was captured on camera as two Butler Township Police Department officers attempted to stop would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks, who was armed with an AR-15-style weapon, on the roof of the American Glass Research (AGR) building. ReportedThe first video, captured on body camera, shows an officer being lifted onto the roof, then quickly ducking down and running to his car to grab a more lethal weapon.
“Damn, I was so close. And he turned around,” the officer hoisted onto the roof said of the shooter.
Crooks pointed a gun at the officer, who then bowed his head, according to Fox News.
“I stuck my head out in front of him and he had a boot bag, he had some big thing and an AR lying down. He was lying down and he had the boot bag next to him,” the officer told the other officers.
After a short time, the officer demanded they go up to the roof and approached three other officers. Officers are then seen standing over Crook's body after a counter sniper shot him dead.
In the second video, officers are heard speaking with other state and local law enforcement officials, expressing anger at not being able to find Crooks, and reportedly discussing the difficulty of communicating because police departments use different radio frequencies. (Related: Video captures the aftermath of the assassination attempt on President Trump)
“This is fucking annoying. We couldn't find him,” another officer said.
NEW: Body camera footage shows aftermath of assassination attempt on President Trump pic.twitter.com/dw0Fv2lU21
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Additional footage shows officers ordering people to leave the area as Crooks was not pronounced dead, and officers were unsure at the time if there had been multiple threats.
“Okay, Threat #1 is down. Threat #1 is down,” an officer confirmed Crooks' death over the intercom, “Threat #1 is down. We need to secure the rest of the area.”
According to Fox News, officers were unsure why there were no officers on the roof.
“I thought you were on the roof?” one of the officers said.
“If everyone had a gun I would have shot him. He wouldn't have taken it out there,” the officer said.
Footage released on July 31 showed a man believed to be Crooks walking across a roof about three minutes before the shooting at 6:11 pm EDT. The footage was taken by victim James Copenhaver, who was shot twice during the incident.
The shooting left President Trump wounded above his right ear and killed former volunteer fire chief Corey Comperatore, 50, while trying to shield his two daughters from the gunfire. Copenhaver and David Duch, 57, were also seriously injured in the incident.
The whistleblower told Republican Missouri Sen. John Hawley that Secret Service agents were originally scheduled to be stationed on the roof but were moved away because of the heat. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle claimed that agents were not stationed on the roof due to a dangerous “sloping roof.”
Cheatle resigned on July 23 after House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer and Ranking Committee Member Jamie Raskin said in a joint statement on July 22 that he “failed to explain” the “stunning operational failures” that occurred during the rally.
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