Featured Image Credit: Butler Township Police Department
Topics: Donald Trump, US News, Crime
Emily Brown
Topics: Donald Trump, US News, Crime
Bodycam footage filmed seconds before a gunman opened fire towards Donald Trump shows the moment a police officer spotted him holding a rifle.
Thomas Matthew Crooks was fatally shot by authorities after he fired towards Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13.
One person lost their life in the attack while the former president and two bystanders were left injured, but it has since emerged that authorities were reportedly aware of Crooks' presence before the shooting took place.
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Bodycam footage, which does not initially have any sound, was filmed by an officer with the Butler Township Police Department and shows him gesturing to another officer to give him a leg up on to the roof where Crooks was positioned, before he fired into the crowd.
The officer pulled himself up to the roof, which was about 12 feet high, but quickly dropped back down to the ground and ran to his car to grab his rifle.
Later in the video, he could be heard saying: "F***ing this close, bro. Dude, he turned around on me."
Butler Township Manager Thomas Knights has previously spoken to Fox News about the officer's actions, saying he 'did observe an individual on the roof' after he was hoisted up.
The individual was 'identified as having a weapon' and 'did point that firearm at [the] officer', Knights added.
When the officer ducked his head, he lost his grip and fell 'approximately eight feet' to the ground, spraining his ankle.
The officer got in touch via radio to a local command post to warn others that Crooks was armed with a rifle, according to a transcript obtained by The Washington Post, saying: "He’s armed. I saw him, he’s laying down.”
However, the message never made it to the Secret Service command center or agency’s personnel closest to Trump, with two law enforcement officers telling The Post the command posts had no direct line of communication, and were being fed information by cellphone.
By the time the officer with the bodycam made it back to the rooftop with his gun, other officers could be seen surrounding Crooks' body after he had been taken out.
"I'm f***ing p**sed. We couldn't find him," one member of law enforcement said in the video.
At a news conference which took place earlier this month, acting Secret Service director Ronald Rowe Jr. acknowledged that separate communications hubs had failed to share information effectively.
“There might have been radio traffic that we missed. We have to be better on that,” he said.