Newly released body-cam footage shows the moment a police officer is boosted onto the roof where would-be Trump assassin Thomas Crooks was perched – and finds himself staring down the gunman’s barrel.
The footage, obtained by Fox News Digital, came from the Butler Township Police officer who climbed onto the roof of AGR International on July 13.
The officer can be seen being lifted up by another officer, then as he struggles to hoist himself up, he peers over the roof ledge.
Within a moment, he drops back down to the ground and sprints out around the building, seemingly warning fellow officers and bystanders watching nearby.
Seconds later, Crooks would open fire on the former president’s rally, striking him in the ear and killing one bystander. The gunman was dead within seconds of his first shot.
The clip has no sound at first, but the volume turns on about halfway through revealing the chaos of the scene.
“He’s got glasses, long hair,” the officer says, describing Crooks’ backpack and the AR-15 rifle he was carrying.
Everything we know about the Trump assassination attempt
- 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks was identified as the shooter who attempted to assassinate Donald Trump during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania.
- Crooks was shot dead by Secret Service agents.
- The gunman grazed Trump’s ear, killed a 50-year-old retired fire chief, and injured two other rally-goers.
- Investigators detailed Crooks’ search history to lawmakers, revealing that he looked for the dates of Trump’s appearances and the Democratic National Convention.
- Crooks’ search history also revealed a broad interest in high-profile people and celebrities, regardless of their political affiliation, FBI officials reportedly said.
- Trump exclusively recounted surviving the “surreal” assassination attempt with The Post at the rally, remarking, “I’m supposed to be dead.”
- High-profile politicians, including President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, addressed the nation about the shooting, calling it “a heinous, horrible and cowardly act.”
Over the officer’s radio, calls requesting an ambulance to the rally’s VIP tent can be heard.
After a moment of the officers standing back and encircling the building, they advance and begin boosting each other up on to the roof.
The officer who first peered over the top then requests to go back on the roof, and Crooks is seen lying dead with a long trail of blood pooling down the rooftop’s slope.
That ledge he climbed onto was about 12 feet off the ground, and he fell about eight feet and sprained an ankle when Crooks pointed his weapon at him.
The officer was not able to draw his own gun on Crooks because both his hands were pinned as he tried to pull himself onto the roof, Butler Township Police Lt. Matthew Pearson previously said – which is clearly visible in his body-cam footage.
Later in the footage, the officer appears to be angry that law enforcement were not communicating on the same radio channels.
“Before you motherf*****s came up here, I popped my head up there like an idiot by myself dude,” he says, “Then he turned around and I f***** dropped and I started f***** I was calling out bro, f***** on top of the roof.”
“F***** we’re not on the same frequency?”
