Graphic body camera footage released Tuesday by Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley shows local law enforcement and a Secret Service agent standing over the gunman’s body after the incident. July 13 assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
The footage, which Grassley said in a social media post was obtained at the request of Congress, was captured by the body camera of a Beaver County Emergency Services Unit officer.
It shows what appear to be several local law enforcement officers and a Secret Service agent. standing on the roof where the shots at Trump were fired from shot from over 400 feet away. The body of the shooterThomas Matthew Crooks, 20, can be seen lying on the roof next to them with a trail of blood.
Last week, a local law enforcement official with direct knowledge of the events told CBS News that a sniper from a local tactical team had been deployed to assist the Secret Service at the rally. had taken a photo of the shooter and I saw him looking through a rangefinder minutes before he tried to assassinate Trump.
In the body camera video, an unnamed Secret Service agent appears to confirm this information, saying that the deceased shooter matches the description of the suspect in photos released before the shooting.
“A Beaver County sniper saw and sent the pictures, that’s him,” the officer says in the video, referring to the shooter’s body.
“I don’t know if you have the same ones as me?” an officer asks the agent about the photos.
“I think so, he (the shooter) was wearing his glasses,” the officer replied.
The officer added that the shooter “sent the original photos, saw him (the shooter) get off the motorcycle, put the backpack down and then lost sight of him.”
The officer also asks if an abandoned bicycle found in the area belonged to the shooter.
“We don’t know,” an officer replies.
Sources previously told CBS News that an AR-style rifle, a remote transmitter and a cellphone were found on the shooter’s body, while two explosive devices, a drone, a tactical vest and four magazines of the same ammunition used in the shooting were found inside the shooter’s car.
In the video, the officer reveals that the people suspected of filming the shooter with their phones have been detained for questioning.
“There were people arrested who were filming… maybe they were involved, maybe not,” the officer told the officers.
Authorities have since confirmed that the shooter acted alone, and cellphone video found that participants tried to alert police to the shooter two minutes before he opened fire on Trump.
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“I think we have three victims in the crowd, can you hear that too?” the officer asks in the video, referring to the rally attendee, a 50-year-old retired firefighter who was killed, as well as two other attendees who were seriously injured.
During testimony On Monday, before the House Oversight Committee, Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, who later resigned In her Tuesday post, she said that at some point before the shooting, law enforcement teams were sent to identify and question Crooks after he was deemed a suspect. She did not provide any additional details, including when the team was sent to make contact with him.
“In a number of our protected sites, suspicious individuals are identified on an ongoing basis,” she said. “That doesn’t necessarily mean they pose a threat.”
However, three sources familiar with a July 17 law enforcement briefing to members of Congress said the Secret Service had been notified by Pennsylvania State Police of a suspicious person with a rangefinder on the ground at 5:51 p.m. — about 20 minutes before the shooter opened fire.
A CBS News analysis has determined that the shooter was able to fire eight bullets in less than six seconds before being fatally shot by a secret service sniper.
— Scott MacFarlane, Melissa Quinn, Nicole Sganga and Anna Schecter contributed to this report.
