(DailyAnswer.org) – Newly released body camera footage captured the day of the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump shows two law enforcement officers attempting to intercept the alleged shooter mere seconds before the first shots were fired.
The public now has access to footage from two Butler Township Police officers present on July 13 during the Trump rally that almost concluded with the former president’s death. That footage shows the officers trying to intercept Thomas Matthew Crooks just seconds before he fired on Trump.
After several attendees alerted law enforcement that someone was on the roof of a nearby structure while Trump was speaking, the officers went to check out the situation. In that bodycam footage, one officer hoists another onto the building’s roof, about 12 feet off the ground. When the officer looks onto the roof, Crooks is seen pointing his weapon at him, causing the officer to duck, lose grip of the building, and then fall to the ground from about eight feet. The Butler Township Manager Thomas Knights said that the officer sprained his ankle from the fall.
Later in the footage, the officer who fell can be heard saying it was “close” when Crooks “turned around” on him. The video also captured Crooks’ dead body on the roof while law enforcement surrounded him after the shooting. The officer who was hoisted told the others present that he “popped” his head up onto the roof “like an idiot” by himself and fell when Crooks turned toward him. He said he called out afterward that someone was on the roof, and then said he wasn’t “on the same frequency” as the Secret Service.
According to Butler Township Police Department Lt. Matthew Pearson, the reason the officer could not draw his weapon on Crooks was because he gripped the building and did not climb up using a ladder, nor did he make it onto the roof before he was spotted. A few seconds later, Trump was hit, Crooks was dead, a rally attendee was dead, and two others were severely injured.
Another officer can be heard on the footage asking why law enforcement was not “on the roof” in the first place. Another called the incident a “f*** up” and said “somebody f***ed up.”
Many Americans still have questions regarding why tips about Crooks were not pursued and why the area he shot from wasn’t properly covered.
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