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Pennsylvania official at Trump assassination says he needs ‘an empire’ given Secret Service staffing problems
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Pennsylvania official at Trump assassination says he needs ‘an empire’ given Secret Service staffing problems

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Bodycam footage from Butler Township, Pennsylvania police, obtained by Fox News Digital on Thursday following a request, shows the efforts of a single police officer to help people after the July 13 assassination attempt on Trump.

“This is way above my pay grade. Whoever you have there, I need an empire,” the officer can be heard saying at 3:40 in the video, which comes just seven minutes after gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks began firing from the roof of the American Glass Research (AGR) building just outside the rally site.

The officer is also heard saying, “We were told someone was looking out a window. I don’t know who was inside,” possibly referring to the interior of the AGR building.

Additional bodycam footage released Thursday shows confusion among officials from various agencies about why there was no police presence on the AGR roof and how the crooks were able to go unnoticed.

TRUMP SHOOTING: TIMELINE OF THE MURDER ATTEMPT

Following the assassination attempt on former President Trump on July 13, police officers deployed to the roof of the AGR building.

Following the assassination attempt on former President Trump on July 13, police officers respond to the roof of the AGR building in Butler, Pennsylvania. (Butler Twp. Police Department)

There was also confusion as to whether Crooks had been neutralized or whether there was still an active threat minutes after the shooting.

Two Butler police officers originally assigned to traffic duty went to the AGR building just seconds before the shooting to get a better look at the roof after hearing reports that a person might be on the roof of the building. In bodycam video, one officer can be seen lifting another onto the roof to get a better look at Crooks.

Assassination attempt on Trump: 3 important findings from the newly released bodycam

Butler Township Administrator Thomas Knights previously told Fox News Digital in an interview that the officer looking up at the roof saw Crooks point his rifle at him, causing him to lose his balance and fall to the ground.

“After the report of the suspicious person came out and our police arrived in the immediate area of ​​the building, they conducted a perimeter search – could not see the person on the roof of the building from their vantage point,” Knights explained at the time. “So one of our other officers … literally lifted one of our (other officers) up in the air high enough so he could grab the edge of the roof.”

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The officer was able to pull himself up so his “head was above the roof” because there was no other way to get to the roof at that moment. The approximate distance from the ground to the edge of the roof where the officer could grab hold is 12 feet, Knights said.

Buildings adjacent to the Butler Farm Show, where a campaign rally for Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump was held,

Buildings adjacent to the Butler Farm Show, the site of a campaign rally for former President Trump, are seen on July 15 in Butler, Pennsylvania. Thomas Matthew Crooks shot and wounded Trump in an assassination attempt from the roof of the complex on July 13. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

The officer “observed an individual on the roof” who “was identified as someone in possession of a weapon” and “aimed the weapon at our officer,” Knights said.

The officer hung from the edge of the roof and took a defensive position, ducked his head and lost his footing. He then fell “approximately 8 feet” to the ground and sprained his ankle, the township administrator said.

In another video released Thursday, a police officer can be heard saying he “told” the Secret Service to send officers to the roof of the building.

“I fucking told them that on Tuesday. I told them to fucking station the boys here.”

— Pennsylvania Police Officer

“I damn well told them to put the damn guys here… the Secret Service,” the officer says.

“I thought you were on the roof,” another police officer is heard saying.

“No, we were inside,” says the first officer.

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The Secret Service responded to the footage in a statement Thursday evening, saying it was aware of the local police videos.

“The U.S. Secret Service thanks our local law enforcement partners who acted courageously in the search for the shooter that day. The attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump was a failure of the U.S. Secret Service, and we are reviewing and updating our protection policies and procedures to ensure that a tragedy like this never happens again,” it said.

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