Newly released bodycam footage shows the moment a police officer is hoisted onto the roof where would-be Donald Trump assassin Thomas Crooks was perched just before the shooting.
The officer attempted to climb the roof and confront the shooter but he found himself staring down the barrel of the gunman’s weapon.
The footage, obtained by Fox News Digital, came from the Butler Township police officer who climbed onto the roof of AGR International on July 13.
The officer can be seen being lifted up by another officer, and then as he struggles to hoist himself up, he peers over the roof edge.
Within a moment, he drops back down to the ground and sprints out around the building, seemingly warning fellow officers and bystanders watching nearby.
Seconds later, Crooks would open fire on the former president’s rally, hitting him in the ear and killing one bystander. The gunman was dead within seconds of his first shot.
The video starts without audio at first but the audio turns up later to reveal the chaos at the scene.
“He’s got glasses, long hair,” the officer says, describing Crooks’ backpack and the AR-15 rifle he was carrying.
Over the officer’s radio, calls requesting an ambulance to the rally’s VIP tent can be heard.
After a moment of the officers standing back and encircling the building, they advance and begin boosting each other up onto the roof.
The officer who first peered over the top then requested to go back on the roof, and Crooks is seen lying dead with a long trail of blood flowing down the sloping rooftop.
That ledge the officer climbed onto was about 12 feet off the ground, and he fell about eight feet and sprained an ankle when Crooks pointed his weapon at him.
The officer was not able to draw his own gun on Crooks because both his hands were pinned as he tried to pull himself onto the roof, Butler Township police Lt. Matthew Pearson previously said — which is clearly visible in his bodycam footage.
The video has sparked a conspiracy that the shooting was an “inside job” as viewers ask why no one warned Trump on stage after they sighted Crooks before he opened fire.
Watch the footage below.
JUST IN: New bodycam footage shows the moment Thomas Crooks pointed his gun at a police officer who confronted him on the roof.
The officer could be seen falling from the roof before running to grab his rifle. (Audio is off until 1:38 in the footage)
The officer confronted… pic.twitter.com/xwgJ9DKOH9
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) August 8, 2024