Butler, Pennsylvania – a local Pennsylvania Police The officer says he asked the Secret Service to secure the building where former President Trump’s would-be assassin fired his rifle, as newly released body cam footage shows.
Footage recorded from a Butler Township police officer’s bodycam also shows that shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks may have used a wooden pallet to climb onto the building before allegedly trying to assassinate the Republican presidential candidate at a campaign rally last month.
Approximately 13 minutes after the sniper kills Crooks, Officer AGR walks around the edge of the building and yells at another officer that secret Service There were no agents on the structure.
“I told them they need to have people stationed here … the Secret Service,” the official said. “I told them that on Tuesday. I told them to have people stationed here.”
“I told them they have to post these guys here … the Secret Service. I told them Tuesday. I told them to post these guys here.”
Trump assassination attempt: Pennsylvania police release bodycams from deadly Butler rally
Police stand near Thomas Crooks after he is shot and killed. (Butler Township Police Department)
Another police officer, presumably from the Butler City Police Department, can be heard saying, “I thought you guys were on the roof.”
“No, we were inside,” an officer with the Butler Township Police Department said.
The exchange appears to have exposed the chaotic nature of security for the rally that day, leading to a blame game between the various agencies involved.
“I wasn’t even worried about it because I thought there was somebody on the roof,” a Butler City Police Department officer can be heard saying. “Like, how can you lose somebody coming back from here if there’s somebody on the roof.”
The officer replies, “They were inside.” Video footage later shows that two secret service agents inside the building.
Trump firing: Timeline of assassination attempt raises questions about how gunman evaded security
The miscreants might have used the straw to climb onto the roof. (Butler Township Police Department)
Speaking to another official, he said, “I talked to the Secret Service people, and they were like, ‘Yeah, no problem, we’re going to have people stationed here.'”
A few minutes later, a Butler Township police officer speaks to a countersniper and repeats his claim that he asked the Secret Service to have agents at the scene.
“I told the Secret Service, put a man here. I told them that in the meeting on Tuesday.”
The footage also shows the officer arriving at the scene at approximately 18:12, about a minute after Crooks was shot by the countersniper. The officer is desperately searching scale of the building and asks a fellow officer if there is a ladder he can climb.
“No, he probably used that board right there,” the second officer said. The video shows a pile of wooden pallets on the side of the building. It’s unclear whether Crooks used those pallets to climb up the building. Previous reports indicated that Crooks purchased a ladder from a local Home Depot, but no ladder was found at the scene.
The video also shows the difficulty and effort the police had to make to enter the building.
The officer helps two countersnipers climb onto a large storage shed, and then they use a pallet on the roof of the shed to gain access to the roof. The pallet was initially resting against the building next to the storage shed and could also have been used by Crooks.
The bodycam footage is one of several videos Fox News Digital obtained through a records request on Thursday. In another video, a police officer building But he is confronted by Crooks and then falls to the ground.
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The miscreants might have used this straw to climb onto the roof. (Butler Township Police Department)
Authorities say Crooks then went off his diet and began grazing Trump’s Cannes and murder spectator Corey Comperatore.
Spectators David Deutch and James Copenhaver were also injured in the shooting. They have both now returned home, Deutch told Fox News in a report on Wednesday. Special statement on the fatal incident,
“The U.S. Secret Service is aware of and is reviewing the July 13 bodycam footage that was recently released by local law enforcement,” the agency said in a statement to Fox News Digital.
“The U.S. Secret Service commends our local law enforcement partners who worked courageously that day to locate the shooter. The attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump was a failure of the U.S. Secret Service, and we are reviewing and updating our protective policies and procedures to ensure a tragedy like this never happens again.”
Fox News’ Brooke Curto contributed to this report.
