Dramatic new police body camera 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 running down the ceiling and along the edge from the kill of a counter-sniper shot in the head.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) released 25 minutes of new body camera 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 bomb-discharge device found in Crooks' possession had an extendable antenna.
The body camera video began as the SWAT officer jogged behind the stage where Trump was shot 16 minutes earlier. He ran to the American Glass Research building north of the fairgrounds that hosted the rally. A medic, another SWAT officer and the SWAT recording operator had to crawl through a hole in the chain link fence to gain access to the AGR property.
“If the phone starts ringing or something, call me, just in case he has someone working with him.”
The SWAT officer climbed onto the roof of Building 6 using a ladder supported on the east facade of the building. When 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 bundle of brown tarps was seen halfway up the roof to where Crooks' body was.
The doctor knelt down and checked Crooks' carotid artery for pulses. His body was face down and had been handcuffed by the first officers on the scene. Crooks' head wound was fatal, as evidenced by the massive amount of blood that flowed across the ceiling.
Crooks' rifle was about six feet to his left, likely moved to that location by the responding officers who later handcuffed him.
Former FBI special agent and SWAT team member Steve Friend said handcuffing a criminal subject and securing any weapons are normal actions for the first officers on the scene. “This is standard protocol to ensure officer safety,” Friend told Blaze News.
“Watch out for the casings,” an off-camera voice told the SWAT officer in the body camera video.
An Allegheny County Bomb Squad sergeant searched the Crooks' pockets. Next to Crooks was a cell phone, a range finder and the gray transceiver. One of the officers took pictures with a mobile phone to send to other bomb squad officials.
“If that phone starts ringing or something, call me, just in case he's got somebody working on him,” said Allegheny Sgt. “I'd like to secure it, but it has 10 percent battery left.” He said the phone would be placed in a Faraday bag that would prevent the signals from triggering explosives if Crooks tampered with any device nearby.
In witness before the US House Judiciary Committee on July 24, FBI Director Christopher Wray said analysts do not believe the remote control could have activated the two explosive devices found in Crooks' vehicle.
“It's hard to understand why the USSS would refuse to use drones when offered.”
A Secret Service agent who went up to the roof around 7:00 p.m. asked about the carcasses, 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 assassination attempt, U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said, according to a whistleblower, the U.S. Secret Service “repeatedly” rejected offers from a local agency to 'law enforcement to have drones. technology available to secure the site for Trump's rally.
“This means that the technology was available to the USSS and could be deployed to secure the sight,” Hawley wrote in a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. “The 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 drone technology to monitor the site after the attack.”
“It is difficult to understand why the USSS would refuse to use drones when offered, especially considering that the USSS allowed the shooter to fly over the demonstration with his own drone just hours earlier. [the] event”,
Hawley wrote.
Wray testified that Crooks flew his own small drone over the rally area, about 200 meters from the stage, for about 11 minutes starting at 3:50 p.m. Trump was shot shortly after 6:11 p.m.
A bipartisan group of US senators sent letters to three federal agencies and five state and local law enforcement agencies to obtain records related to the demonstration and the assassination attempt.
“Senators are seeking information on security preparations, intelligence gathering about potential violence before 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 investigations by the DHS Office of Inspector General and the FBI.
During nearly five hours of testimony on the House floor on July 24, Wray appeared to question whether Trump was actually hit by a bullet or shrapnel. Wray did not explain what led him to make the claim.
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 physician for over 20 years in the United States Navy, including as a combat medic 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 both the hospital and I confirm. Director Wray is wrong and inappropriate to suggest anything else.”
On Friday afternoon, the FBI issued a statement confirming that Trump was hit by a bullet. “What struck former President Trump in the ear was a bullet, whole or fragmented into smaller pieces, fired from the deceased subject's rifle,” the agency said.
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