Dramatic video from would-be Trump assassin's roof perch fills in details of tragic shooting

Dramatic new police bodycam video from the Pennsylvania rooftop where Thomas Matthew Crooks fired his AR-15-style rifle at former President Donald J. Trump showed his handcuffed body face-down and a river of blood that ran down the roof and over the edge from a counter-sniper’s kill shot to the head.

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) released 25 minutes of new bodycam video to add to the three minutes he released earlier in the week. The video was obtained by Senate investigators from the Beaver County Emergency Services Unit SWAT team.

The video confirmed the presence of eight shell casings and showed that a remote-control device for triggering bombs found in Crooks’ possession had an extendable antenna.

The bodycam video began as the SWAT officer jogged behind the stage where Trump was shot 16 minutes earlier. He ran toward the American Glass Research building north of the fairground that hosted the rally. A medic, another SWAT officer, and the recording SWAT operator had to crawl through a hole in the chain link fence in order to access the AGR property.

'If that phone starts ringing or something, call me, in case he’s got someone working with him.'

The SWAT officer climbed to the roof of Building 6 via a ladder leaned against the east front of the building. As the officer stepped onto the roof at 6:31 p.m., the camera showed an open, black Swiss Gear backpack near the north edge of the roof. A small, tan canvas pack was seen about halfway up the roof to where Crooks’ body lay.

The medic knelt down and checked Crooks’ carotid artery for a pulse. His body was face-down and had been handcuffed by the first officers on scene. The wound to Crooks’ head was fatal, as evidenced by the massive amount of blood that flowed down the roof.

Crooks’ rifle was about six feet to his left, likely moved to that spot by responding officers who then handcuffed him.

Former FBI special agent and SWAT team member Steve Friend said handcuffing a criminal subject and securing any weapons are by-the-book actions for the first officers on scene. “That is a standard protocol to ensure officer safety," Friend told Blaze News.

“Watch out for shell casings,” a voice off camera told the SWAT officer on the bodycam video.

A sergeant from the Allegheny County Bomb Squad searched through Crooks’ pockets. Lying next to Crooks were a cell phone, a rangefinder, and the grey transceiver. One of the officers snapped photos with a cell phone to send to other bomb squad officials.

“If that phone starts ringing or something, call me, in case he’s got someone working with him,” the Allegheny sergeant said. “I’d like to secure it, but he’s got 10 percent battery left.” He said the phone would be placed in a Faraday bag that would prevent signals from triggering explosives if Crooks’ had rigged any devices nearby.

In testimony before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee on July 24, FBI Director Christopher Wray said analysts don’t believe the remote controller could have triggered the two explosive devices found in Crooks’ vehicle.

'It’s hard to understand why USSS would decline to use drones when they were offered.'

A Secret Service agent who came onto the roof about 7 p.m. asked about shell casings, some of which were visible on the roof. “At least 8,” the Beaver SWAT officer said.

Police Drones Were Offered

In other developments in the attempted assassination, U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said, according to a whistleblower, the U.S. Secret Service “repeatedly” refused offers from a local law enforcement agency to have drone technology available to secure the site for the Trump rally.

“This means that the technology was both available to the USSS and able to be deployed to secure the sight,” Hawley wrote in a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. “Secret Service said no.”

Hawley said it was only after the shooting that the Secret Service changed its mind “and asked the local partner to deploy the drone technology to surveil the site in the aftermath of the attack.”

“It’s hard to understand why USSS would decline to use drones when they were offered, particularly given the fact USSS permitted the shooter to overfly the rally with his own drone mere hours before [the] event,”
Hawley wrote.

Wray testified that Crooks flew his own small drone in the area of the rally, about 200 yards from the stage, for about 11 minutes beginning at 3:50 p.m. Trump was shot just after 6:11 p.m.

A bipartisan group of U.S. senators sent letters to three federal agencies and five state and local law enforcement agencies to obtain records related to the rally and the attempted assassination.

“The senators are seeking information on security preparations, intelligence gathering on potential violence prior to the attack, and detailed explanations of the agencies’ security response,” Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said in a statement.

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee earlier announced its own bipartisan investigation, joining investigations in the House and probes by the DHS Office of Inspector General and the FBI.

During nearly five hours of testimony in the House on July 24, Wray seemed to question whether Trump was actually struck with a bullet or whether it was a piece of shrapnel. Wray did not explain what led him to make the assertion.

Wray’s remarks drew fire from Trump’s former presidential physician, U.S. Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas), who has examined Trump since the shooting.

“Having served as an emergency medicine physician for over 20 years in the United States Navy, including as a combat physician on the battlefield in Iraq, I have treated many gunshot wounds in my career,” Jackson wrote in a July 26 letter to “Concerned Citizens of the United States.”

“There is absolutely no evidence that it was anything other than a bullet,” Jackson wrote. “Congress should correct the record as confirmed by both the hospital and myself. Director Wray is wrong and inappropriate to suggest anything else.”

On Friday afternoon, the FBI issued a statement confirming that Trump was struck by a bullet. "What struck former President Trump in the ear was a bullet, whether whole or fragmented into smaller pieces, fired from the deceased subject’s rifle," the agency said.

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