Shortly after Fox News Digital released bodycam video from Butler Township Police Department officers who were on the scene when Thomas Crooks attempted to assassinate Donald Trump, the Wall Street Journal posted audio also obtained from Butler PD bodycams revealing their frustration at the Secret Service for not securing the rooftop at AGR.
RELATED: New Bodycam Footage From Cop Who Confronted Crooks on Roof During Trump Assassination Attempt
One officer said he warned the Secret Service five days before the rally that the AGR area would need to be secured, and that the Secret Service told him they’d have guys posted there. (NOTE: There are profanities in the original audio, which are bleeped in the recording, and we’ve censored the written form.)
🚨 #BREAKING: Newly revealed audio captured by a Butler, PA officer’s bodycam shows the Secret Service was REPEATEDLY warned DAYS IN ADVANCE they needed to cover the roof of the AGR building.
USSS then said they’d post guys there, which was a LIE.
Moments after the sh**ting,… pic.twitter.com/tQGiCtD9gh
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) August 8, 2024
The Wall Street Journal did not post the full bodycam videos, just audio from one portion and transcript of others.
“I f—ing told them that they needed to post guys f—ing over here…I told them that f—ing Tuesday,” said a Butler Township officer 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.’”
Another portion of audio seemingly refers to Crooks:
A police officer in one of the videos at one point 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.”
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. I’m not sure he is the gentleman down or not.”
About 10 minutes after the shooting, another audio captures the confusion between officers about whether there were officers stationed on the roof.
“I thought you guys were on the roof. I thought it was you. I thought it was you.”
“No,” came the reply, with an explanation that no officers were on the roof.
“What the f—,” the officer replied in frustration. “Why were we not on the roof? Why weren’t we?”
In the footage posted by Fox News Digital, it appears the Butler PD radios and the Secret Service radios were not on the same frequency, leading to a lack of communication about the threat posed by Crooks:
The [footage] captures Crooks toward the end as officers surround his body after countersnipers fatally shot him.
“I’m f—— p—ed. We couldn’t find him,” another officer can be heard saying in the bodycam footage.
“Before you motherf—–s came up here, I popped my head up there like an idiot by myself dude,” the officer who was boosted onto the roof 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?”
WSJ details the varying accounts about who was supposed to be on the roof, if anyone, and the communications between local law enforcement and the Secret Service about securing the roof and the AGR campus.
Federal law-enforcement officials have said the Secret Service believed the snipers from the Butler County Emergency Services Unit were supposed to secure the roof of the building where Crooks fired his rifle.
However, the local law-enforcement official involved in the event planning previously said the tactical team’s heads told the Secret Service during the walk-through that its snipers would be inside the building on its second floor.
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 said. Also the sloped roof would have obscured some of the snipers’ vantage points, he said.
On the day of the rally, the Secret Service had limited interaction with local police, including the Butler County Emergency Services Unit, the official said.
Real Clear’s Susan Crabtree, who has been working this story from the beginning, confirmed some of the information in the Wall Street Journal’s report and added a bit more from a source within the USSS:
The Secret Service mistakenly let that go — did not insist they go up on the roof, agreed to allow them to locate inside the building. That was likely a decision by the lead site agent, a woman, who had little to no experience allocating assets and positioning them appropriately for a out-door rally of this size.
“It was a mistake…just an overall lax approach to the rally…there’s no good explanation for it,” the source tells me of the Secret Service decision not to insist that the local officers be located on the roof.
This could have all been avoided if the Secret Service included the AGR campus in its secure area from the start, given its proximity to the stage. The flurry of new information and finger-pointing coming out Thursday hopefully points to a renewed interest in just what happened on July 13 and the days prior.
