Bodycam footage from local Pennsylvania police reveal that in the moments after last month’s attempted assassination of Donald Trump, an officer says he told the Secret Service to cover the warehouse used by shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks.
“I f—ing told them that they needed to post guys f—ing over here…I told them that f—ing Tuesday,” said a Butler Township officer in audio captured by his body-worn camera and obtained by the Wall Street Journal.
“I talked to the Secret Service guys. They’re like, ‘Yeah, no problem. We’re going to post guys over here,’” the officer continues.
The footage paints a more complete picture of the anger and frustration moments after Thomas Matthew Crooks was able to fire eight shots at the former president from an AR-style assault rifle. A spectator was killed, two others were injured, and Trump suffered a bullet wound to the ear. The Journal obtained the videos under a public-records request Thursday.
A police officer in one of the videos at one point refers to a suspicious individual who had been lost by authorities. The unidentified officer referred to “a gentleman with a flat face that we were looking for earlier. He was creeping people out.”
The officer’s account, which was broadcast over radio channels, was captured by one of the body cameras. “He was watching people out in the woods by the water tower. I’m not sure he is the gentleman down or not,” the officer says.
Around 10 minutes after the shooting, another officer says to a fellow officer “I thought you guys were on the roof. I thought it was you. I thought it was you.”
To which “No” can be heard in response.
“What the fuck! Why were we not on the roof? Why weren’t we?” the officer replies.
As the Epoch Times notes further, the footage also shows the moment an officer with the Butler Township Police Department tried to get on the roof of a building where suspected gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks was perched. Another officer helped lift the responding officer to the roof after rally attendees alerted police that there was an individual on the roof near the rally where Trump was set to speak.
In the clip, an officer is seen moving toward a building before another officer tries to hoist him onto the roof. The officer is then seen trying to climb onto the building before he drops down.
Only officers’ hands are seen as he tries to get onto the roof in the video, which does not show Crooks.
“If I’m interrupted, and I move my gun, you are going to have to reassess that whole situation at this point, so yes, you can make a case that those two officers saved the president’s life,” Slupe told the paper.
He then asked, “Can you imagine 10 seconds before that? That the president was looking straight ahead and where that bullet could have potentially landed.”
More than three weeks after the assassination attempt, federal officials have not disclosed the Crooks’s motive. So far, few details have emerged about the suspect, and his family has not issued a public statement responding to the incident.
Previous Footage Released
Separate bodycam footage from a responding official was released in connection to the July 13 shooting, which killed a rally attendee and injured two others. In late July, Sen. Chuck Grassley’s (R-Iowa) office released rooftop bodycam footage of an officer who responded to the shooting—after Crooks was killed by a Secret Service sniper.
It shows an officer with the Beaver County Emergency Services Unit standing next to a dark-suited man, who appears to be a Secret Service agent, according to a press release from Grassley’s office.
In the clip, at least three other law enforcement officials can be seen, although it is not clear exactly how many were present on the roof when the footage was filmed.
On the ground next to them appears to be the body of Crooks. Although the shooter’s body has been partially blurred in the video, a long trail of blood on the roof can be seen.
The Beaver County officer and the purported Secret Service agent can be heard discussing the timeline of events they believe led up to the assassination attempt, including whether the man lying on the ground next to them is the same man seen in a photo sent out by a member of Beaver County’s sniper team.
“So, this is the guy … that the sniper saw,” the agent says.
“Yes, a Beaver County sniper seen [sic] and sent the pictures out, this is him,” the officer replies.
The Secret Service agent then asks whether or not an abandoned bike that was found in the area belonged to the shooter.
“We don’t know,” the officer responds.
The Beaver County officer then shows the agent photos on his phone.
“I don’t know if you got the same ones I did?” the officer asks the agent, referring to the photos.
“I think I did, yeah, he’s [the shooter] got his glasses on,” the agent replies.
That footage shows law enforcement talking about a need to use a drone to secure and inspect a water tower that was onsite, according to his office.