BUTLER, Pa. — Pennsylvania police have released body camera footage showing two officers attempting to stop Thomas Matthew Crooks on a rooftop seconds before he allegedly tried to assassinate former President Trump at a campaign rally last month.
The footage, released Thursday, was captured by two Butler Township Police Department officers who desperately tried to stop Crooks moments before he fired his DPMS AR-15 rifle, striking former President Trump in the ear, killing Corey Comparatore and wounding two others.
An officer hoisted another officer onto the roof where Crooks was stationed, about 12 feet above the ground.
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An officer signals another officer to come up to the roof where Crooks was stationed. (Butler Township Police Department)
Crooks pointed his gun at the officer who scaled the building, before eventually ducking his head and losing his grip on the edge of the roof and falling about eight feet to the ground, spraining his ankle, Butler Township Manager Thomas Knights previously told Fox News Digital.
The video does not show Crooks.
Pearson told a local media outlet that the officer was unable to draw his weapon because he was hanging from the building.
Seconds later, Crooks opened fire, wounding Trump in the right ear. Three rallygoers were also shot, including Corey Comperatore, 50, who was killed protecting his family from harm.
David Dutch and James Copenhaver were shot and injured at the rally. They both returned home Wednesday, with Dutch providing an exclusive statement to Fox News about the fatal incident.
These images are the last crucial pieces of information available to the public in an attempt to shed light on exactly what happened that day and the efforts that were made to stop Crooks.
A map detailing locations of interest related to the investigation into the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump by Thomas Crooks in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, July 13, 2024. (Provided by Senator Chuck Grassley)
The security failures that paved the way for the shooting have been clouded by accusations from the various agencies involved at the local, state and federal levels.
Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe Video showing a person moving across a rooftop minutes before former President Trump was shot confirms a ‘failure’.
The video, obtained exclusively by Fox News Digital Video, taken by victim Copenhagen, shows a figure moving across the roof of the American Glass Research (AGR) building minutes before gunshots rang out at Trump’s rally.
The FBI previously said Crooks arrived at the rally site at 11 a.m. on the day of the shooting and spent an hour there before returning home.
Crooks didn’t return to the scene until 3:50 p.m. Local law enforcement officers, at their designated posts, first spotted him around 5:10 p.m. — about 50 minutes before Trump took the stage, according to documents obtained by Fox News Digital from Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, who obtained them from the Beaver County Emergency Services Unit (ESU).
Upon returning to the rally site, Crooks flew a drone about 200 yards from where Trump was scheduled to speak, according to the FBI. The FBI later said no photos or videos were taken from the drone and that the agency found no memory cards in the drone.
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At 5:30 p.m., local law enforcement took a photo of Crooks and forwarded it to command.
“A kid is learning how to navigate a building we’re in,” one officer wrote in a text message, along with a photo of Crooks. “AGR, I think it is. I saw him with a rangefinder pointing toward the scene. FYI. If you want to warn the SS snipers, watch out.”
“I lost sight of him,” the officer added.
A follow-up message read: “Call command and have an officer check the incident.”
At 6:12 p.m., the “kid” was reportedly killed by a counter-sniper after opening fire on the rally participants.
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Thomas Matthew Crooks is photographed in front of the Butler Fairgrounds the day after the attempted assassination of the former president on July 14, 2024 in Butler, Pennsylvania. (Bethel Park School District/Getty Images)
Butler County Sheriff Michael Slupe told the New York Post that the officers who stopped Crooks likely provided enough of a distraction to save Trump’s life.
“If I get interrupted and I move my weapon, you’re going to have to reevaluate the whole situation at that point, so yes, you can say that those two officers saved the president’s life,” Slupe told the outlet.
Slupe said that “timing is everything,” and the shooter’s interruption gave Trump the seconds he needed to miraculously turn his head so that the bullet hit only his ear.
“Can you imagine 10 seconds before that?” the sheriff asked. “The president was looking straight ahead and where the bullet could have potentially landed.”
Fox News Digital is currently reviewing the body camera footage. This article will be updated in the future.
Fox News’ Sarah Rumpf-Whitten contributed to this report.
