by Joseph Weber
Newly acquired police body cam video includes audio in which a local police officer moments after the July 13 assassination attempt on former President Trump at a Pennsylvania campaign rally complains about the Secret Service not having cover the rooftop from which the sniper shot.
“I f—ing told them that they needed to post guys f—ing over here,” says a Butler Township officer in the audio of tape obtained by The Wall Street Journal on Thursday under a public records request. “I told them that f—ing Tuesday,” said a in audio captured on his body-worn camera. “I talked to the Secret Service guys. They’re like, ‘Yeah, no problem. We’re going to post guys over here.’”
The tape appears to add to the gathering of information about security lapses that allowed Thomas Matthew Crooks to fire eight shots at the former president from an AR-style assault rifle before being killed by a Secret Service counter-sniper.
Crooks killed one rally-goer and wounded three others at the event, including Trump.
A police officer in one of the new videos refers to a suspicious individual who had been lost by authorities. The unidentified officer referred to “a gentleman with a flat face that we were looking for earlier. He was creeping people out.”
Previous reporting found police at the rally saw a person, later identified as Crooks, acting suspiciously but lost track of him.
The officer’s account, broadcast over radio, was captured on one of the body cameras.
“He was watching people out in the woods by the water tower,” he says. I’m not sure he is the gentleman down or not.”
Minutes after the shooting, another officer arrived at the warehouse and said to a fellow officer: “I thought you guys were on the roof. I thought it was you. I thought it was you.”
The other officer replied: “No,” with an explanation that no officers were on the roof, according to the newspaper.
“What the f—,” the first officer replied in frustration. “Why were we not on the roof? Why weren’t we?”
The Secret Service reportedly thought the snipers from the Butler County Emergency Services Unit were supposed to secure the roof of the building from which Crooks fired.
However, the local law-enforcement official said previously said the tactical team’s leaders told the Secret Service during the walk-through that its snipers would be inside the building on its second floor, also according to The Wall Street Journal.
Butler’s team didn’t want the snipers on the roof because they would have been exposed to temperatures over 90 degrees throughout the day, the official reportedly said.
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Joseph Weber is a reporter for Just the News.
