Published 11 August 2024 at 10.14
Foreign. New video footage shows the moment a Pennsylvania police officer climbs onto a roof and sees the man who less than a minute later would try to assassinate Donald Trump. The police turn around, however, and run toward the scene to try to save the former president.
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In the video, which was released by the Butler Township Police Department after a AP public records request, the police officer is seen being lifted onto the roof by a colleague.
Shortly after he catches sight of the shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, he throws himself back down from the roof. According to the police, it was because he caught sight of the shooter, who is pointing his weapon at him while he himself still has both hands busy trying to climb onto the roof.
The policeman fails to get the Secret Service to take the situation seriously and about 40 seconds later, Crooks opens fire and fires eight shots at Trump, hitting him in the ear.
Soon after, Crooks is shot and killed by a Secret Service sniper.
Additional footage from police body cameras shows local officers expressing frustration that they had alerted the Secret Service and asked them to place officers at the building from which the shooter later opened fire fire, but that these warnings were ignored.
After the confrontation on the roof, the policeman who first spotted Crooks is seen rushing to his squad car to retrieve a rifle, while radioing his colleagues about the shooter's position.
In another sequence, a police officer is heard frantically telling his colleagues that he had warned the Secret Service several days before to place surveillance on the very building the shooter was using.
The video showing the police meeting with Crooks , along with additional material, has now been released publicly and provides an insight into the intense minutes surrounding the attack which could have had an even more tragic outcome. They are part of the formal US investigation into the Secret Service's performance during the caucus.