LEILA FADEL, HOST:
We're getting a clearer view of how law enforcement responded to the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump. Video captured by police show the moments before and after the shooting last month in Butler, Penn. NPR's Martin Kaste reports.
MARTIN KASTE, BYLINE: Viewed together, these videos capture the surprise and chaos of the Trump rally shooting. The Butler Township Police Department released them in response to public disclosure requests from NPR and other media organizations. The most revealing footage comes from the camera worn by a Butler officer who was called to a spot just outside the rally where people had spotted a gunman crawling on a roof. He sees the gunman, too, and gets another officer to give him a boost up to the roof. He falls back to the ground, rushes to get his rifle, then directs the other officers who are now converging on the site.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED OFFICER #1: This building - he was on top of this building, the left one. I jumped up.
KASTE: While local officers struggled back to the roof, the gunman shot into the rally, then he was shot and killed by a Secret Service sniper. In the aftermath, another Butler officer is recorded on his body camera, wondering about the apparent hole in the event's security.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED OFFICER #2: I thought you were on the roof. I thought it was you.
UNIDENTIFIED OFFICER #3: What?
UNIDENTIFIED OFFICER #2: I thought you guys were on the roof.
UNIDENTIFIED OFFICER #3: No.
KASTE: Members of Congress say the Secret Service has not been forthcoming about why no one was guarding that rooftop. And two weeks ago, the service's director, Kimberly Cheatle, resigned under pressure. But retired Secret Service agent Kerry O'Grady, who ran the Denver office, says we don't know yet the whole story of what happened.
KERRY O'GRADY: There's nothing to be gained by just one video, as far as understanding what happened here.
KASTE: O'Grady says she'll reserve judgment until the formal investigation is complete.
Martin Kaste, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF LONDON LIGHTHOUSE'S "PAPA KNOWS BEST") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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