Bodycam video from Trump rally shows moment when officer first sees gunman on roof
Bodycam video footage released by police on Thursday shows the moment when a local police officer spotted the gunman on a roof, just seconds before the attempted assassination of Donald Trump at a July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
The video, without audio at this moment, shows when a Butler Township Police officer is hoisted onto the roof where the gunman, Thomas Matthew Crooks, had taken position. The officer gets a boost from another officer to get on the building, but quickly drops. He then runs to alert other officers that he saw the gunman and heads to his patrol car to retrieve his gun.
Thirty-nine seconds later, Crooks opened fire. Shots grazed the ear of the former president, killed volunteer firefighter and father of two Corey Comperatore, and injured two more rally-goers.
"He turned around on me," the officer who tried to climb on the roof yells to another officer after getting his weapon and struggling to catch his breath. "Who's got eyes on him? He was right where you picked me up, bro. He was on the left side."
Within seconds, more law enforcement officers from different units are seen approaching the building.
"He is laying down," the officer says as a tactical unit prepares to climb on the roof. "He's got glasses, long hair."
The officer warns the team the gunman has a book bag and an AR-style gun. "Watch out!" he yells.
A Secret Service sniper shot and killed Crooks within seconds of him opening fire, but the officers in the video seem to not know this yet.
"This building, this building, the left one," the officer who spotted the gunman cries out. Seconds later an officer can be heard in the background of the video yelling, "Let me see your hands, let me see your hands!"
The bodycam video shows the officer climbing back onto the building and walking up to the body of the gunman, which is surrounded by three armed officers. The video shows blood running down the roof from the body.
The officer who first tried to get on the roof had been handling traffic and was part of a group that was called by a local tactical team stationed on the second floor of the building complex after they had grown concerned about a suspicious person. One of the snipers took a picture of the gunman and saw him looking through a rangefinder minutes before the shooting.
In another bodycam video from the scene, a Butler police officer tells another local officer, "I f---ing told the Secret Service post a f---ing guy over here. I told them at the f---ing meeting."
The bodycam video also shows the officer who tried to get on the roof and the others cursing and visibly frustrated. "I popped my head up there like an idiot by myself," the officer says. "He turned around, I f---ing dropped."
"Dude, I was f---ing calling out, bro, on top of the roof. Were you all on the same frequency?" the officer asks the others.
A few minutes later, the officer asks a member of the tactical unit, "You good, bro?"
"I'm f---ing pissed," the officer responds. "We were watching him. We f---ing couldn't find him."
"I hear you, I hear you," the officer who first climbed the roof responds.
A CBS News video analysis determined that the gunman fired eight shots in under six seconds before he was fatally struck — a fact later confirmed by the FBI. The Butler rally was the first time Secret Service counter snipers had been deployed to secure a Trump rally this campaign cycle.
