Newly released footage from local Pennsylvania police reveals a vivid picture of the moments surrounding Donald Trump’s assassination attempt in July.
In a body-camera video, a local official tells colleagues that he told the U.S. Secret Service ahead of time to secure the building used by the gunman.
Another shows the moment an officer mounts a rooftop and sets eyes on the gunman seconds before Trump opens fire on a rally.
Trump opened fire in the shooting, killing one person and seriously wounding two others.
Body and dashboard renders were released on Thursday to US media by the Butler Township Police Department.
They capture moments of frustration, confusion and miscommunication in the moments before and after the assassination attempt.
In one, a local official said he had asked the Secret Service to man the building where the gunman opened fire days before the rally.
“I told them to post the boys there,” he said, according to one video Retrieved from The Wall Street Journal.
“I told them that [on] Tuesday.”
An open air rally took place on Saturday 13th July.
The officer became angry when he told his colleagues that he had asked the Secret Service to secure the building.
“I talked to the Secret Service guys and they said, ‘Yeah, no problem, we’re going to post guys here,'” the official says.
Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, was shot and killed by a Secret Service counter-sniper team after firing eight bullets in Trump’s direction from a rooftop outside the rally’s security perimeter.
The killer was on the building in what police described as a “secondary ring,” which was patrolled not by the Secret Service, but by local and state authorities.
Trump, who was addressing supporters on stage, injured his ear before he fell and Secret Service agents pulled him from the stage.
In another video, a Butler County police officer can be seen being lifted by a colleague onto a rooftop where Crooks can be found.
When he sees the gunman armed, he quickly descends.
He is then seen running to the other side of the building and to his police car to retrieve a gun.
Crooks opened fire on Trump about 40 seconds after the officer first laid eyes on the gunman.
The officer shouts to his colleague: “He’s straight … who saw him?”
The video shows police officers trying to access the roof.
The officer who sees Crooks tells them, “He’s got glasses, long hair,” and he’s carrying a book bag and an AR-style rifle.
After climbing onto the roof, the officers find Crooks’ body.
The first police officer is then heard saying: “I stuck my head up there like an idiot,” and he “started calling” that there was a gunman on the roof.
“Were you on the same frequency?” He hears what he asks The police refer to the radio.
In other scenes, an officer is said to be confused as to why the roof was unmanned.
“I thought it was you! I thought you were on the roof!” Then he swore in frustration and asked: “Why aren’t we on the roof?”
The Secret Service stationed three counter-shooters in a nearby building.
One of them spotted Crooks following reports from law enforcement officials at the site of a suspicious person at the rally.
The Secret Service sniper took a photo of Crooks before leaving his post to search for the suspect.
BBC News has not seen all the videos. Their contents were reported by several American news organizations.
In a statement Thursday, Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said the agency was reviewing the footage.
“The US Secret Service commends our local law enforcement partners for their valiant efforts to find the shooter that day,” he said.
“The attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump was a U.S. Secret Service failure, and we are reviewing and updating our security policies and procedures to ensure a similar tragedy does not happen again.”
The FBI is investigating the incident, as is a bipartisan House committee of 13 lawmakers.
