BUTLER, Pa. — A local Pennsylvania police officer instructed the Secret Service to secure the building where an assassin attempted to kill former President Trump fired a rifle, newly released body camera footage suggests.
Footage recorded by a Butler Township police officer’s body camera also suggests that the shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, may have used a wooden pallet to scale the building before allegedly trying to assassinate the Republican presidential candidate at a campaign rally last month.
About 13 minutes after Crooks was shot by a sniper, an officer walked around the side of the AGR building and yelled at another officer that no Secret Service agents were in the building.
“I told them goddammit that they needed to put them here…Secret Service,” the officer said. “I told them goddammit Tuesday. I told them to put them here.”
“I told them damn they need to put them here…Secret Service. I told them on that damn Tuesday. I told them damn they need to put them here.”
Trump assassination attempt: Pennsylvania State Police release body camera footage from Butler rally that ended in deaths
A police officer stands beside Thomas Crooks after he was shot and killed. (Butler Township Police Department)
“I thought you guys were on the roof,” another officer, believed to be from the Butler Police Department, can be heard saying.
“No, we were inside,” an officer with the Butler Township Police Department said.
The exchange appears to highlight the disorganized security arrangements put in place at the rally that day and has sparked various condemnations among the various agencies involved.
“We weren’t even worried because we thought there was somebody on the roof,” an officer with the Butler Police Department can be heard saying, “How could we let someone walk out here if they were on the roof?”
“They were inside,” the officer responded. Video footage later shows two Secret Service agents inside the building.
Trump shooting: Timeline of assassination attempt raises questions about how gunman escaped security
The perpetrator may have used a pallet to climb onto the roof. (Butler Township Police Department)
Speaking to another officer, he says, “I talked to the Secret Service people and they were like, ‘Yeah, no problem, we’ll put people here.’
A few minutes later, a Butler Township police officer spoke with a counter-sniper, who reiterated his claim that he had instructed the Secret Service to send agents to the venue.
“I told the Secret Service to put this son of a bitch here. I told that son of a bitch in the meeting on Tuesday.”
The footage also shows officers arriving on the scene at approximately 8:12pm, about a minute after Crooks was shot dead by a counter-sniper, and officers frantically trying to scale the building, asking fellow officers if there is a ladder they can use to climb up.
“No, he probably used a board there,” the other officer said. The video shows wooden pallets stacked against the side of the building. It’s unclear if Crooks used the pallets to climb onto the building. Previous reports had said Crooks purchased a ladder at a local Home Depot, but no ladder was found at the scene.
The video also shows police having a difficult and frantic effort to gain entry into the building.
Officers were able to help the two counter-snipers up into a large shed and onto the roof, where they managed to use a pallet on the shed’s roof to gain access to the roof. The pallet had originally been leaned up against a building next to the shed, and may also have been used by Crooks.
The body camera footage was one of several obtained by Fox News Digital through a records request on Thursday. Another video shows an officer scaling a building only to be confronted by Crooks, who falls to the ground.
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The thieves may have used the pallets to get onto the roof. (Butler Township Police Department)
Authorities said Crooks then fired the gun, grazing Trump by the ear and killing spectator Corey Comperatore.
The shooting also injured spectators David Duch and James Copenhaver, who have since returned home. Duch provided Fox News with an exclusive statement on Wednesday about the deadly incident.
“The U.S. Secret Service is aware of and is reviewing the body camera footage from July 13 recently released by local police,” the Secret Service said in a statement to Fox News Digital.
“The U.S. Secret Service thanks our local law enforcement partners who acted bravely that day to locate the shooter. The attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump was a failure of the U.S. Secret Service, and we are reviewing and updating our security policies and procedures to ensure such a tragedy never happens again.”
Fox News’ Brooke Kurt contributed to this report.
