Bodycam Footage From Assassination Attempt On Trump Shows Frantic Police Response
New body camera footage obtained by CNN offered a glimpse into the police response during the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump last month.
CNN’s Thursday report came after having received the footage from the Butler Township Police Department as a result of filing and appealing a public records request. The Pennsylvania rally shooter injured Trump’s ear, killed one person and injured two more, sparking concerns over security and multiple investigations.
In one clip that was taken just before the shooting, a Butler Township Police Department officer lifts another officer up to take a look at a roof, on which the shooter, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, fired at Trump. Immediately after being lifted up, the officer quickly dropped back down.
The footage does not show the gunman, but previous reports indicated that the gunman pointed his AR-style rifle at the officer who climbed up to the roof. Roughly 40 seconds later, the shooter fired at Trump.
“F**king this close bro,” the officer who saw the gunman says moments later. “Dude, he turned around on me.”
In another clip published by CNN, an officer claims that he previously told the Secret Service to keep an eye on the building.
“I f**king told them they need to post the guys over here,” the officer said. “I told [Secret Service] that, I told them that f**king Tuesday. I told them to post f**king guys over here.”
Anthony Guglielmi, an agency spokesperson, told HuffPost in a statement that the USSS was looking into the footage.
“The U.S. Secret Service is aware of and reviewing the bodycam footage from July 13 that was recently released by local law enforcement. The U.S. Secret Service appreciates our local law enforcement partners, who acted courageously as they worked to locate the shooter that day,” Guglielmi’s statement read.
“The attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump was a U.S. Secret Service failure, and we are reviewing and updating our protective policies and procedures in order to ensure a tragedy like this never occurs again,” the statement continued.
Aside from the footage released Thursday, Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley’s office also released footage that showed the shooter visited a Pennsylvania gun club called Clairton Sportsmen’s Club 43 times in the span of 11 months before carrying out the assassination attempt.
Grassley’s office said that it demonstrated the gunman’s “intense preparation in the months prior to his attempted assassination of the former president.”
“He focused almost exclusively on the rifle range throughout 2024,” Grassley’s office said.
In the days following the shooting, people close to Trump, who briefly donned a white bandage on his ear, painted the image of a changed man. However, the former president rejected the notion soon thereafter.
“No, I haven’t changed,” Trump told rally attendees in St. Cloud, Minnesota, two weeks after the shooting. “Maybe I’ve gotten worse, actually. Because I get angry at the incompetence that I witness every single day.”
