Anika Begay
Law enforcement officers at former President Donald Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13 were captured on bodycams carrying away one of the victims injured in Trump’s attempted assassination.
Butler Township Police Department
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Butler Township Police Department
Newly released bodycam video reveals the chaotic law enforcement response to the attempted assassination of former President Trump last month.
Footage obtained by NPR shows what the local officer who encountered the gunman saw moments before he opened fire at the July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
The video shows the officer’s point of view as he runs toward the building where the gunman was positioned on the roof. A colleague picks him up and the officer peers over the roof.
The encounter lasts only a fraction of a second, then the officer drops again, hits the ground and runs to the other side of the building.
An officer gestures for his colleague to lift him up so he can access the roof. It is there that he encounters the gunman.
Butler Township Police Department
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Butler Township Police Department
The video has no audio, because the officer, at this point, has not activated his bodycam and was recovered only after the fact, the Butler Township Police Department said.
A timeline provided by law enforcement indicates that moments after the encounter, the gunman began shooting.
About a minute passes as the officer runs from his encounter with the shooter, around the side of the building and back to his car to load a long gun from the back seat. The officer then presses the record button on his bodycam and the audio begins. The officer, whose name was not released, then directs other officers arriving on the scene.
The officer who encountered the shooter tells arriving law enforcement: “So close. Brother, man, he turned his head toward me.”
Another officer asks where the shooter is. The officer who saw him says, “He’s straight ahead! Right where you got me, bro? He was on the left side.”
He describes the gunman as having “glasses, long hair. He’s got a bag of books, he’s got crazy s***.”
As he does so, his body camera captures a number of law enforcement officers attempting to reach the roof. Screams can be heard from a ladder as other officers attempt to hoist each other up onto the roof.
The officers continued to shout at each other for several minutes and some managed to climb onto the roof.
Several law enforcement officers head toward the building from which the gunman is shooting from the roof.
Butler Township Police Department
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Butler Township Police Department
A 50-year-old former fire chief, Corey Comperatore, was killed and two other rallygoers were seriously injured in the attack. Trump was shot in the ear.
The attacker was killed by the secret services.
Later, a video captures another local police officer wondering aloud why no law enforcement had been stationed on that rooftop.
That question has yet to be answered, as law enforcement agencies, including the Secret Service, cite an ongoing investigation. In late July, U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned from her post following criticism of the agency’s handling of the incident by members of Congress.
The footage shows the immediate aftermath of the gunman’s killing
Law enforcement officers attempt to reach the roof from which the gunman was shooting.
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According to the footage, the officer who first encountered the gunman on the roof volunteered to be lifted up again by the other officers who were struggling to climb up.
On the roof, he joins three police officers, at least two of whom are heavily armed and wearing camouflage, vests, boots, and long rifles, who surround the shooter’s body. One officer holds his gun to the body.
A long trail of what appears to be blood can be seen.
An officer handcuffs the gunman and hands him over, while they wait for other officers to arrive.
A backpack can be seen near the body.
Toward the end of the 26-minute video, one of the officers in camouflage says, “This is not a photo with Trump.”
Other videos capture the confusion at various points
Additional footage released by Butler Township police shows officers at various points throughout the fair and immediately after the shooting.
A nearly 22-minute video shows the vantage point from the back of the rally stands, just behind where Trump was speaking. The video has no audio, but the footage offers an eerily silent look at the chaos that ensued once the shooting began.
The officer takes cover and does not rush to respond to the gunfire. It is unclear what his orders were or what he says to the other officers around him who are milling around with guns drawn.
About six and a half minutes into the video, a group of officers carry an injured person by each limb and disappear into a white tent behind the stands.
Another video taken by an officer outside the building from which the gunman fired highlights the confusion that also existed among law enforcement at the beginning.
An officer says, “I thought it was you! I thought you were on the roof!” He curses in apparent frustration and asks, “Why aren’t we on the roof?”
She later complains: “Every time they saw him… they should have called us first.”
