New body camera video released Thursday by Butler Township Today, a person attempted to assassinate former President Donald Trump It shows the moment police confronted the shooter before he opened fire on a crowd in Pennsylvania, and says a police officer alerted the Secret Service to the building’s vulnerability.
In one video, minutes before Trump’s speech, a Butler Township officer is hoisted onto the roof of a building near a July 13 rally.
The video shows the officer quickly dropping to the ground and running to a nearby police car, watching with his head over the roof. In this angle of the bodycam video, the shooter is not visible and there is no sound.
NBC News previously reported that at the time the officer confronted the shooter, Thomas CrooksAccording to Butler Township Manager Tom Knights, he pointed his gun at the officer, causing the officer to hit the ground.
The officer is later seen in the video confirming the encounter, saying, “f—— so close, dude, he flipped on me.”
Officers later identified as the shooter On top of a building in a complex next to the Butler Farm Show where Trump spoke, about 148 meters from Trump and outside the security perimeter That day was set by the Secret Service.
Crooks fired eight shots, hitting Trump in the ear. killed one rally participant and seriously injured two others. Crooks was shot dead by counter-snipers within seconds.
Later in the same video clip, the town of Butler is shown the officer jumped back onto the roof. In that video, Crooks’ bloodied body can be seen in handcuffs after Secret Service snipers shot and killed him.
“Before you mom—– got here, I got myself up here like an idiot, dude…” the officer said in radio traffic captured in the clip. “Brother, on the roof, brother,” I called, were you on the same frequency?
An unidentified member of the SWAT team later said he was “frustrated” because he “couldn’t find him,” referring to Crooks.
In another clip released Thursday, an unidentified Butler Township officer said he told the Secret Service about the building’s vulnerability days before the rally, about 10 minutes after Trump was shot.
The officer can be heard saying, “He told them they had to put the boys in here. I told them.”
“To whom did he tell,” the officer replied, “Secret Service.”
The officer said he told Secret Service members on July 9 — four days before the July 13 incident — to “put the kids in here,” referring to the building where the shooter was found.
“How can you lose a guy walking here?” said the officer.
When asked if the officer’s team was on the roof, the officer replied “no” and said the team was inside. There is some back-and-forth in the audio about where people are located.
The Secret Service assured officials earlier in the week that “we’re going to send the guys over here,” the officer added. He doesn’t mention the location in the video.
US Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said in a statement that the agency is reviewing the video.
“The US Secret Service appreciates our local law enforcement partners who acted courageously to locate the shooter that day,” Guglielmi said. “The assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump was a failure of the US Secret Service, and we are reviewing and updating our protective policies and procedures to ensure that such a tragedy does not happen again.”
This was reported by the Pennsylvania State Police identified Crooks as a “suspect.” before the attack.
The Secret Service has been criticized for its handling of the event and any warnings it gave before Trump took the stage. remove the former president from the stageand for him preparation before the rally.
In the middle of a dangerous situation, the head of the agency, Kimberly Cheatle has resigned from her position. A few days later, the acting head of the Secret Service told a Senate committee hearing that Secret Service agents could be fired if discovered, they violated protocol that day.
Gabe Gutierrez contributed.