Republican Senator Chuck Grassley last Tuesday released police bodycam footage of the aftermath of the July 13 assassination attempt on Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
The graphic footage shows local law enforcement and a member of the US Secret Service on the rooftop standing over the body of 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks after he was killed by a sniper.
The footage, which Grassley obtained from the Beaver County Emergency Services Unit via a congressional request, was from a bodycam worn by an officer from the unit.
In the footage, multiple officers as well as a Secret Service agent are on the roof where the gunman fired at the former president. The shooter’s dead body is lying beside them near a trail of blood as they discuss whether he was the suspect spotted earlier by rally attendees and law enforcement.
Grassley said in a July 23 press release that the video confirmed that local law enforcement spotted the gunman before he reached the roof and shared pictures of him with members of the Secret Service.
The video also confirmed that law enforcement lost track of the gunmen before the shooting and had requested access to a drone to secure a nearby water tower following the shooting.
The Secret Service agent is heard on the video confirming that the people who captured video and pictures of the gunman on their cellphones had been detained for questioning to determine if any of them may have been involved in the assassination attempt.
Federal investigators later confirmed that Crooks acted alone and that the videos were filmed by rally-goers in an attempt to alert law enforcement about the gunman several minutes before he opened fire.
The bodycam footage was released the same day Kimberly Cheatle announced that she was resigning as Director of the Secret Service.
In an email to staff, Cheatle took “full responsibility” for the security lapses that led to the assassination attempt and said she would be stepping down.
