Butler County releases redacted 911 calls from July Trump assassination attempt

Released 911 recordings from the July 13 assassination attempt on Donald Trump in Butler County depict a chaotic scene, with callers frantic and confused.

“We are at the Trump assembly, and there’s a guy shooting. He’s been shooting up the place,” a female caller told dispatchers, according to The Intercept.

The news organization was among several, including Scripps News and NBC News, that filed lawsuits that prompted Wednesday’s release by Butler County commissioners of redacted copies of the calls.

County officials originally denied the Right to Know requests, saying recordings of 911 calls are generally exempt from disclosure and that the recordings were the subject of a larger investigation into the shooting, according to The Butler Eagle.

Appeals filed with the Pennsylvania Office of Open Records were denied in August, prompting news organizations to sue.

In Wednesday’s consent order, Judge Kelley T.D. Streib of the Butler County Court of Common Pleas wrote that the balancing test under Pennsylvania law favored releasing the recordings given “the unique, historical circumstances,” according to The Intercept.

Calls began flooding Butler County dispatchers about one minute after suspected gunman Thomas Crooks fired shots through the crowd toward the stage, where a bullet grazed Trump’s ear.

Gunfire injured two men and killed Corey Comperatore, a 50-year-old firefighter from Buffalo Township.

In one call, the wife of one of the victims is heard asking for help to find which hospital he was taken to, according to The Intercept’s report.

“I called Butler hospital, he’s not there. They told me to call 911,” the woman said.

In the background, people can be heard screaming, painting a picture of the terror that filled the Butler Farm Show grounds.

“They just tried to kill President Trump,” one man told dispatchers. He was calling for a paramedic to help with a woman who fainted during the chaos, The Intercept reported.

Several other calls were made by fearful relatives of rally attendees. One woman was worried because her mother was at the rally, she told 911.

“What am I supposed to do?” she asked, while the operator assured her police were evacuating the area.

In all, 15 recordings were released.

Butler Township police had earlier released body camera footage showing real-time response. Video showed police blaming the Secret Service for not securing the building where Crooks crawled to the roof, according to The Intercept.

Butler Commissioner Leslie Osche told The Butler Eagle the county’s policy to refuse release of 911 recordings is meant to avoid a future situation where people might be afraid to call for fears the tape might be played publicly.

Osche said she’s glad the consent order includes redacted names.