CNN
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Dramatic video obtained by CNN shows, for the first time, the moment a police officer climbed up to the roof of a building overlooking the Donald Trump rally on July 13 and saw the former president’s would-be assassin just before the shooting began.
Other footage from the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, which CNN obtained through a public records request, shows local officers lamenting that they told Secret Service to post officers near the building the gunman fired from days earlier.
A video from the Butler police officer’s body-worn camera shows how the officer was hoisted up by his colleague onto the roof, quickly dropping down after he sees the shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks.
Approximately 40 seconds later, Crooks turned back and fired eight shots at Trump, who was hit in the ear. Seconds later, a Secret Service sniper shot and killed Crooks.
The video does not show Crooks on the roof before the shooting and there is no audio around the moment the officer climbed up and quickly dropped down after coming face-to-face with the shooter.
After the encounter, the officer runs around to another side of the building before running to his police car to retrieve a rifle.
“F**king this close bro,” the officer who saw Crooks says to another officer. “Dude, he turned around on me.”
One officer asks where the shooter is and the officer, panting, says, “He’s straight up.”
“Who’s got eyes on him?” the officer asks. “He was right where you picked me up, bro. He was on that left side.”
Over the radio a voice says: “We have two civilians – tending to them,” and later, “I need an ambulance in the back.”
This video was released by Butler Township Police Department in response to CNN’s public records request that asked for any body-camera video or dash-camera video involving Butler Township officers or personnel related to the rally and shooting at Butler Farm Show on July 13. The township initially declined to release the content but did after CNN appealed.
Officers say they asked for Secret Service help earlier that week
In a separate video released by the Butler police, one officer can be heard telling colleagues about 10 minutes after the shooting that he had told Secret Service to post law enforcement by the building that Crooks fired from.
“I f**king told them they need to post the guys f**king over here,” the officer said. “I told them that, the f**king, the Secret Service, I told them that f**king Tuesday. I told them to post f**king guys over here.”
Another officer replied that he wasn’t “even concerned about it because I thought someone was on the roof. I thought that’s how we — how in the hell can you lose a guy walking back here?”
“I talked to the Secret Service guys, they were like, ‘Yeah, no problem, we’re going to post guys over here,’” the first officer said.
