Bodycam footage obtained by the Wall Street Journal reveals new details about the moments after last month’s attempted assassination of Donald Trump by Thomas Matthew Crooks. In audio captured by a Butler Township officer’s body-worn camera, the officer says he told the Secret Service to cover the warehouse used by the shooter.
The footage provides a more comprehensive account of the anger and frustration experienced by law enforcement after the attack, which resulted in the death of a spectator and injuries to two others, as well as a bullet wound for Trump. The videos were obtained under a public-records request.
One officer’s account, captured over radio channels, refers to a suspicious individual who had been lost by authorities earlier. This unidentified officer described “a gentleman with a flat face that we were looking for earlier. He was creeping people out.
The footage also shows the moment an officer with the Butler Township Police Department tried to get on the roof of a building where suspected gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks was perched. Another officer helped lift the responding officer to the roof after rally attendees alerted police that there was an individual on the roof near the rally where Trump was set to speak.
More than three weeks after the assassination attempt, federal officials have not disclosed Crooks’ motive. So far, few details have emerged about the suspect, and his family has not issued a public statement responding to the incident. The bodycam footage provides an opportunity for further investigation into the events that transpired during and after the attack on Trump.
