Newly released bodycam footage reveals more details of Trump rally shooting
Newly released body camera footage from the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump captures the moment an officer popped his head above the roof and saw the shooter pointing a rifle his way.
Just 40 seconds after a local police officer was hoisted up to the roof by a colleague, saw the gun and quickly dropped to the ground, Thomas Matthew Crooks began firing, according to video released by the Butler Township Police Department.
Crooks’ bullets killed one spectator, wounded two others and nicked Trump’s ear before a Secret Service sniper felled the shooter.
One clip shows the officer’s perspective as he’s being hoisted up, peeks over the edge of the roof and hastily drops down, while another captures the chaos that ensued as police officers tried to gain access to the roof after Crooks opened fire.
Eventually they made it to the top of the building to find Crooks dead alongside his rifle.
The mad scramble to get at Crooks before they realized he’d been killed was also recorded.
“I need an ambulance in the back,” a voice can be heard saying over a radio, delineating there were wounded civilians. They turned out to be Corey Comperatore, a firefighter who died protecting his family, and two other wounded men, David Dutch, 57, and James Copenhaver, 74.
In another piece of footage, police officers can be heard discussing how they had told the Secret Service to station someone on that roof, and that Butler Township officers were inside the building. They couldn’t figure out how Crooks managed to scale it.
The officers expressed confusion and outrage as to why the roof was unmanned, with one stating he had flagged the building to the Secret Service days earlier. They also said the Secret Service assured them someone would be there, and while they were inside an adjacent building, they were not on the roof, according to CNN.
“I (expletive) told them that they needed to post guys (expletive) over here ... I told them that (expletive) Tuesday,” one Butler officer can be heard saying in the camera’s audio. “I talked to the Secret Service guys. They’re like, ‘Yeah, no problem. We’re going to post guys over here.’”
Two Butler Township commissioners had already seen the footage on mainstream news networks as of Thursday evening.
“I’m happy that we put the footage out there,” said Butler Township commissioners chairman James Lokhaiser Jr., who saw a portion of the footage that was being shown on Fox News.
Butler Township commissioners vice chairman Sam Zurzolo praised the work of the officers who discovered Crooks and acted in the moments leading up to the attempt on Trump’s life.
“I’m proud of my men. They did a good job,” said Zurzolo. “They did their job and they did it well. Their actions probably saved the president’s life that day. I think they went above and beyond the call of duty. They took action to the best of their ability.”
After seeing the video, county Commissioner Kevin Boozel lauded the involved officers.
“It was a highly stressful and unpredictable situation,” Boozel said in a message. “I commend all who applied their skills, training and courage to get control of the situation as quickly as possible to ensure the safety of those involved.”
Butler Township police Lt. Matthew Pearson said he could not comment on the footage because the department is “cooperating with three separate investigations.”
Eagle staff writer Hunter Muro contributed to this report.
