Body camera video released by police on Thursday shows the moment a local officer spotted the gunman on a rooftop, just seconds before the incident. attempted assassination of Donald Trump at a rally on July 13 in Butler, Pennsylvania.
The video, which does not currently have audio, shows a Butler Township police officer being hoisted onto the roof where the shooter is located, Thomas Matthew Crookshad took a stand. The officer gets help from another officer to climb into the building, but he quickly falls. He then runs to warn the other officers that he saw the shooter and heads to his patrol car to retrieve his weapon.
Thirty-nine seconds later, Crooks opened fire. brushed the ear of former president, slain volunteer firefighter and father of two Corey Companionand injured two other participants in the rally.
“He turned around toward me,” the officer who tried to climb onto the roof yelled at another officer after retrieving his weapon and struggling to catch his breath. “Who’s eyes on him? He was right there where you picked me up, bro. He was on the left side.”
Within seconds, other law enforcement officers from different units are seen approaching the building.
“He’s lying down,” the officer says as a tactical unit prepares to climb onto the roof. “He’s wearing glasses and has long hair.”
The officer warns the team that the shooter has a satchel and an AR-type weapon. “Watch out!” he shouts.
A secret service A sniper shot and killed Crooks within seconds of opening fire on him, but the officers in the video don’t seem to know that yet.
“This building, this building, the one on the left,” the officer who spotted the shooter shouts. Seconds later, an officer can be heard yelling in the background of the video: “Let me see your hands, let me see your hands!”
Body camera video shows the officer climbing back up the building and approaching the shooter’s body, which is surrounded by three armed officers. The video shows blood dripping from the body onto the roof.
Butler Township Police Department
The officer who first attempted to climb onto the roof was directing traffic and was part of a group called in by a local tactical team stationed on the second floor of the building after becoming concerned about a suspicious person. One of the snipers took a photo of the shooter and saw him looking through a rangefinder minutes earlier. the shooting.
In another body camera video taken at the scene, a Butler police officer tells another local cop, “I told the Secret Service station there was a guy here. I told them at the meeting.”
The body camera video also shows the officer trying to climb onto the roof and the others cursing and looking frustrated. “I just looked up like an idiot, by myself,” the officer said. “He turned around, I fell.”
“Dude, I was calling, man, on the roof. Were you all on the same frequency?” the officer asks the others.
A few minutes later, the officer asks a member of the tactical unit: “Are you okay, brother?”
“I’m really angry,” the officer replied. “We were watching him. We couldn’t find him.”
“I hear you, I hear you,” replied the officer who first climbed onto the roof.
A CBS News Video Analysis Investigators determined that the shooter fired eight shots in less than six seconds before being fatally shot – a fact later confirmed by the FBI. Butler’s rally was the It was the first time that secret service counter-snipers were deployed to secure a Trump rally this campaign cycle.
Anna Schecter contributed to this report.
