Shortly after Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire at a Pennsylvania rally for former president Trump, a local police officer complained to a colleague that he had warned the Secret Service in advance about the need to secure the area the gunman used, according to police body-cam video. “I f---ing told them they needed to post guys f---ing over there. I told them that f---ing Tuesday,” the officer told a colleague. The video, one of 12 provided to the Washington Post in response to a records request, shows the confusion and frustration among law enforcement after the shooting, underscoring a key question: Why didn’t anyone secure the roof of a building so close to the rally site? “Why weren’t we on the roof?” an officer in a video asks a colleague. Another officer responds that “the Secret Service guys, they were like, ‘yeah, no problem, we’re gonna post guys over here.’”
The footage is from cameras worn by police officers for Butler Township, one of several agencies asked to help the Secret Service secure the July 13 rally. Officials have said Crooks fired eight shots, wounding Trump, killing one rallygoer and critically injuring two others. The videos capture an officer being hoisted onto the roof of the Agr International building, where he glimpsed Crooks with a gun a half-minute before he opened fire. Seconds after peeking over the edge of the roof, the officer drops down and retreats to the building’s parking lot. The officer radioed to a local command post that Crooks was armed with a rifle, but that message never made it to the Secret Service command center or agents closest to Trump. After Crooks was killed, the officer explains that he had alerted others on a police radio channel and asks his colleagues if they had access to that channel. “That’s what I was calling out, bro,” the officer says while standing with other law enforcement officials on the roof next to Crooks’ body. “F----- on top of the roof. Are you all on the same frequency?”
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