I told them that fucking Tuesday. I told them to post guys over here.
On a July afternoon in Butler, Pennsylvania, a lone police officer came face to face with a young man holding a rifle on a rooftop — and the forty seconds that followed would wound a former president, end the shooter's life, and expose a fracture in the architecture of American security. The bodycam footage CNN obtained does not merely document a near-miss; it illuminates the ancient and recurring gap between warning and action, between what is communicated and what is heard. In the aftermath, institutions are left to reckon not only with what failed, but with why the failure persisted even after those closest to the ground had spoken clearly.
- A Butler officer hoisted onto a rooftop locked eyes with Thomas Matthew Crooks — rifle at his side — and dropped back down in an instant of pure survival instinct.
- Forty seconds later, eight shots rang out over the rally crowd, striking former President Trump in the ear before a Secret Service sniper neutralized the threat.
- Bodycam audio captured a local officer's raw frustration: he had explicitly warned Secret Service days earlier to post guards near that very building, and was told it would be handled.
- It was not — a counter sniper had left his post to search for a suspicious person, leaving the rooftop unguarded at the critical moment.
- Records released by Senator Grassley reveal Crooks had visited a rifle range 43 times in the preceding year, with his final session occurring the afternoon before the attack.
- The Secret Service has since acknowledged the event as an agency failure and pledged a review of protective protocols, though the distance between acknowledgment and reform remains to be measured.
On the afternoon of July 13, a Butler police officer was hoisted onto a rooftop in Pennsylvania and found himself staring directly at Thomas Matthew Crooks — a young man with glasses, long hair, a backpack, and an AR-15 laid out beside him. The officer dropped back down immediately, body moving before thought could catch up. Forty seconds later, Crooks fired eight shots at the rally below, striking former President Donald Trump in the ear. A Secret Service sniper killed Crooks shortly after.
Bodycam footage obtained by CNN through a public records request captures the raw texture of those moments — the officer being lifted up, the sudden eye contact, the retreat. Breathing hard afterward, he describes the encounter to colleagues: "Fucking this close, bro. Dude, he turned around on me." He warns others trying to reach the roof to stay cautious. When law enforcement finally reached the top, they found Crooks dead, his rifle nearby, blood at the roof's edge. A dashboard camera recorded the eight shots, then five more, then an officer's shout: "Don't put up your head — he's right there!"
But the footage reveals a failure that began days before the shooting. In a recording made roughly ten minutes after the attack, a Butler officer tells colleagues he had warned Secret Service earlier that week to post officers near the building Crooks used. "I fucking told them," he says, recalling that Secret Service acknowledged the request and said they would handle it. They did not. Three local counter snipers were placed in an adjacent building, but one had left his post to search for a suspicious person — Crooks himself — and was absent when the shots were fired.
Separate documents released by Senator Chuck Grassley add another layer: Crooks had visited a rifle range 43 times between August 2023 and July 2024, intensifying his rifle practice in the months before the rally. His final visit was at 2:45 p.m. on July 12 — the day before he climbed onto that roof.
The Secret Service has since called the event a failure of its own making and stated it is reviewing and updating its protective policies. What remains open is whether that review will close the gap the footage so plainly shows — between a warning clearly given and a precaution never taken.
On the afternoon of July 13, a Butler police officer found himself alone on a rooftop in Pennsylvania, his head suddenly level with that of a man holding a rifle. The man was Thomas Matthew Crooks. The officer dropped immediately, his body instinct faster than thought. Forty seconds later, Crooks turned and fired eight shots downward at the rally below, striking former President Donald Trump in the ear before a Secret Service sniper killed him.
Bodycam footage obtained by CNN shows the raw seconds of that encounter. The officer is hoisted onto the roof by a colleague, scans the space, locks eyes with the shooter, and vanishes back down. Later, breathing hard, he describes the moment to other officers: "Fucking this close bro. Dude, he turned around on me." He tells them Crooks wore glasses, had long hair, carried a backpack, and had an AR-15 laid out beside him. "But watch out because he can fucking come right down on you over there," the officer warns those attempting to reach the roof.
When law enforcement finally accessed the top of the building, they found Crooks dead, his rifle nearby, blood trailing down the roof's edge. The footage captures the aftermath in fragments—officers coordinating over radio, civilians being tended to, the machinery of emergency response grinding into motion. One officer's dashboard camera records the eight shots, then five more in rapid succession, followed by his own shout: "Don't put up your head – he's right there!"
But the bodycam footage reveals something else: a failure of communication that preceded the shooting by days. In a separate recording made about ten minutes after the attack, a Butler officer tells colleagues he had warned Secret Service earlier that week to post officers near the building Crooks used. "I fucking told them they need to post the guys fucking over here," the officer says. "I told them that, the fucking, the Secret Service, I told them that fucking Tuesday." Another officer responds with frustration: "I wasn't even concerned about it because I thought someone was on the roof. I thought that's how we—how in the hell can you lose a guy walking back here?" The first officer recalls that Secret Service acknowledged the request: "Yeah, no problem, we're going to post guys over here."
They did not. Secret Service positioned three local counter snipers in an adjacent building, but one of them left his post to search for a suspicious person—Crooks himself—and was not there when the shooting began. The agency later acknowledged the attempt as a failure of its own making. "The attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump was a U.S. Secret Service failure," said Anthony Guglielmi, the agency's spokesperson, adding that it is reviewing and updating protective policies to prevent future incidents.
Separate documents released by Senator Chuck Grassley paint a picture of methodical preparation. Records from Clairton Sportsmen's Club, where Crooks held a membership, show he visited the gun range 43 times between August 2023 and July 2024. In the months immediately before the rally, he attended three to six times per month, focusing on rifle practice rather than pistol or shotgun ranges. His final visit was at 2:45 p.m. on July 12—the day before he climbed onto that roof in Butler.
The bodycam footage, released by Butler Township Police in response to CNN's public records request, shows the granular reality of a security breach: the moment of proximity, the officer's instinctive drop, the seconds that separated a potential tragedy from the actual one that followed. It also shows what local law enforcement believed they had communicated clearly to their federal counterparts, and what those counterparts apparently did not act upon. The question now is whether the Secret Service's stated commitment to review and update its procedures will address the gap between warning and action.
Notable Quotes
The attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump was a U.S. Secret Service failure, and we are reviewing and updating our protective policies and procedures in order to ensure a tragedy like this never occurs again.— Anthony Guglielmi, Secret Service spokesperson
I fucking told them they need to post the guys fucking over here. I told them that fucking Tuesday.— Butler police officer, recorded approximately 10 minutes after the shooting
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
What strikes you most about that moment when the officer saw Crooks on the roof?
The absolute closeness of it. The officer's head was at the same level as the shooter's. There was no barrier, no distance. Just recognition and then the officer dropping down. It's the kind of moment that could have gone differently in a fraction of a second.
The officer had been hoisted up by a colleague. Was that a planned sweep, or something more ad hoc?
The footage doesn't make that entirely clear, but what's clear is that it was a single officer, alone, doing the looking. He wasn't part of a coordinated team effort at that moment. He saw Crooks, reacted, and dropped. Then he had to tell everyone else what he'd seen.
And the warning to Secret Service days before—how explicit was that?
Very explicit. The officer told them directly: post officers near that building. He even recalls them saying yes, they'd do it. But they didn't, or they didn't in a way that mattered. One of the three snipers they did position left his post to search for a suspicious person—who turned out to be Crooks.
So the local police identified the vulnerability, communicated it, and then the federal agency didn't act on it.
That's what the recordings suggest. And now the Secret Service is calling the whole thing a failure on their part. But the footage shows the failure wasn't a lack of warning. It was a failure to respond to a warning they received.
The shooter visited that gun range 43 times in less than a year. Does that detail change how you read the security failure?
It adds a layer of inevitability to it. This wasn't a sudden, unpredictable act. There was preparation, repetition, pattern. The local officers seemed to sense that vulnerability at that specific location. They were right to be concerned. The question is why that concern didn't translate into action.
What does the officer's language in those recordings tell you?
He's frustrated. He's saying what he said, what he warned about, what he saw. There's no ambiguity in his tone. He's not hedging. He told them. They said okay. And then something broke in that chain between acknowledgment and execution.