Pennsylvania officer at Trump assassination attempt says he needs 'empire' amid Secret Service staffing woes
Bodycam footage from the Butler Township, Pennsylvania, Police Department obtained by Fox News Digital on Thursday through a records request shows a single officer's efforts to help people after the Trump assassination attempt on July 13.
"This is way above my pay grade. Whoever you have coming, I need an empire," the officer can be heard saying around the 3:40 mark in the footage captured just seven minutes after gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks began shooting from the roof of the American Glass Research (AGR) building directly outside the rally perimeter.
The officer can also be heard saying, "We have been told that somebody was looking out a window. I do not know who was inside," possibly referring to the interior of the AGR building.
Other bodycam footage released Thursday reveals confusion among officers from different agencies regarding why there was no law enforcement presence on the AGR roof and how Crooks went unnoticed.
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There was also confusion about whether Crooks had been neutralized or if there was still an active threat minutes after the shooting.
Two Butler police officers who were originally assigned to traffic duty went to the AGR building just seconds before the gunfire in an attempt to get a better look at the roof after hearing reports of a person possibly on top of the building. In a bodycam video, one officer can be seen boosting another onto the roof to try and get a better look at Crooks.
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Thomas Knights, Butler Township manager, previously told Fox News Digital in an interview that the officer looking onto the roof saw Crooks point his rifle at him, at which point he lost his balance and fell to the ground.
"Once the suspicious individual report came out, and our police arrived in the immediate area of the building, they did do a perimeter search — were unable to see the person on top of the building from the vantage point," Knights explained at the time. "So one of our other police officers… literally boosted one of our [other officers] up high enough in the air to grab hold of the edge of the roof."
The officer was able to pull himself up so that his "head was above the roof" because there was no other way to access the roof at that moment. The approximate distance from the ground to the edge of the roof where the officer got hold is 12 feet, Knights said.
The officer "did observe an individual on the roof," who "was identified as having a weapon" and "did point that firearm at our officer," Knights said.
The officer took a defensive position from where he was hanging on the edge of the roof, ducked his head, and lost his grip, at which point he fell "approximately eight feet" to the ground and sprained his ankle, the township manager explained.
In additional video released Thursday, a police officer can be heard saying he "told" the Secret Service to have officers on the roof of the building.
"I f---ing told them they need to post the f---ing guys over here… the Secret Service," the officer says.
"I thought you guys were on the roof," another police officer can be heard saying.
"No, we were inside," the first officer says.
The Secret Service responded to the footage in a Thursday evening statement, saying it is aware of the videos from local police.
"The U.S. Secret Service appreciates our local law enforcement partners, who acted courageously as they worked to locate the shooter that day. The attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump was a U.S. Secret Service failure, and we are reviewing and updating our protective policies and procedures in order to ensure a tragedy like this never occurs again," it said.