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Body camera footage shows local police anger at Secret Service after Trump assassination attempt

Body camera footage shows local police anger at Secret Service after Trump assassination attempt

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WASHINGTON (AP) — In the chaos following the attempted assassination of Donald Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania last month, a local police officer told a colleague that he had warned the Secret Service days earlier that the building where the 20-year-old gunman opened fire needed to be secured.

“I (expletive) told them they needed to put people (expletive) here,” the officer said in police body camera footage released by the Butler Township Police Department. “I told them that on Tuesday (expletive).”

When another officer asked who he had told, he replied: “The secret service.”

Police body camera videos released in response to a public records request show local law enforcement officers’ frustration at how Thomas Matthew Crooks — who police had flagged as a suspect before the shooting — managed to get out of their sight, climb onto a rooftop and fire an AR-style rifle at the former president and Republican presidential candidate. They also show police expressing confusion and anger at why no officers were stationed on the roof.

“I wasn’t worried because I thought someone was on the roof,” one officer said. He asked how “the hell” they lost sight of Crooks after noticing him acting suspiciously if police were on the roof of the building. The other officer replied, “They were inside.”

Trump was hit in the ear but did not suffer serious injuries. One bystander was killed and two others injured.

Several investigations are underway into the security lapses that led to the shooting. Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe Jr., who took over after former chief Kimberly Cheatle resigned, said he “cannot justify why the roof was not better secured.” The Secret Service patrols the area after people pass through metal detectors, while local law enforcement has jurisdiction outside the premises. Rowe told lawmakers last month that the Secret Service “assumed that the state and local authorities had everything under control.”

A Secret Service spokesman said Friday that the agency was reviewing the body camera footage.

“The U.S. Secret Service thanks our partners in local law enforcement who acted courageously in the search for the shooter that day,” spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said in an email. “The attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump was a failure of the U.S. Secret Service, and we are reviewing and updating our protection policies and procedures to ensure that a tragedy like this never happens again.”

Two officers from the county’s local sniper teams were in the complex and noticed Crooks acting strangely. One of them ran outside to look for Crooks while the other remained on the second floor of the building, according to Butler County District Attorney Richard Goldinger. But neither officer could see Crooks from his second-floor position on the adjacent building, Goldinger said.

Another video shows officers frantically searching for Crooks shortly before the shooting. The video shows one officer helping another climb onto the roof to investigate, only to spot Crooks before he jumps down and runs to his car to get his gun. The video has no audio until the officer gets back to his car and gets his gun, so it’s unclear what he said after seeing Crooks on the roof. It wasn’t immediately clear if the audio wasn’t recorded or if police had redacted the audio.

The acting director of the Secret Service said local law enforcement did not inform his agency before the shooting that an armed person had been spotted on a nearby roof.

After the shooting, a video shows officers climbing onto the roof where Crooks lay dead. One of the officers stands next to his body and says he was “(expletive) mad” that police “couldn’t find him.”

“I understand you, brother,” the officer replies. “But right now he’s the only one.”

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Lauer reported from Philadelphia

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