SARASOTA?? A previously unknown video of the 2017 Circus Sarasota rehearsal that resulted in the collapse of Nik Wallenda’s dangerous eight-person pyramid has surfaced.

The Herald-Tribune learned of its existence and obtained a copy from the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office, where it had remained since 2017. The aftermath of that accident throws a spotlight on pending litigation lodged by one of the troupe’s injured family members.

Here is the video, beginning near the time of the accident:

“As far as legal stuff, it’s never been a battle,” Wallenda said Thursday. “I’ve done everything I’ve could to make sure they’ve been taken care of … If you want to take it from a legal side, this video has been released to the legal teams, etc. So it’s not as though we’ve tried to hide it from them?? it’s out there. But they’ve all been successful to keep it inside.”

Nik Wallenda’s aunt Rietta, who fell more than 40 feet from the summit of the pyramid, declined to be interviewed. But her mother, Carla, daughter of the late circus legend and family patriarch Karl Wallenda, said Rietta “is in so much pain. She has a very, very bad limp, and one of her legs is two inches shorter than the other now.”

The five-minute video was taken by an unknown bystander on Feb. 8, 2017, just three days before Circus Sarasota opened its 20th season.

With Rietta perched atop the shoulders of Zebulon Fricke, the eight advance cautiously to the middle of the nickel-thick steel cable, suspended 28 feet above the matted floor. The Wallenda family never uses nets, in live shows or practice.

Roughly two minutes and 50 seconds into the video, Nik’s sister Lijana begins to struggle for stability, her balancing pole dipping ominously from one side to another. As her legs start to wobble, Nik?? commanding the bottom rear position, the only spot with a clear view of the entire stack?? appears to bend his knees, as if about to crouch. Lijana is the first to topple to the floor.

Shoulder bars, balancing poles and four other performers clatter into the surface within a matter of seconds. The video doesn’t catch the impact, but it reflects the shock and urgency of the ground crew as they rush to assist the fallen. Miraculously, given the Wallenda family’s tragic history with the high wire, no one was killed or paralyzed.

A sheriff’s spokesperson said the office received the video on the day of the accident, but “we do not have (a) record of who shot the video.”

Carla Wallenda said she heard the footage was taken by a beverage truck driver stocking supplies for the show.

According to the Circus Sarasota program, Lijana was an unscheduled, last-minute addition to the pyramid cast. Living and performing in Las Vegas, Nik’s older sister joined the assembly after an original member balked at the height and bowed out, said Carla Wallenda and Rietta’s brother Rick.

“Lijana hadn’t done the pyramid in eight years,” said Carla. “You need months to practice for this, not days, I don’t care how good you are. You don’t grab a football player who hasn’t played in eight years and put them on the field.”

Carla, inducted into the St. Armands Circle Ring of Fame in January after a long career of aerial acts, said Rietta hadn’t informed her she was doing the pyramid until shortly before the show. She also said she declined to accept opening-night tickets.

Weeks after the spill, Lijana told NBC Today Show viewers through wired-shut jaws that she “broke every bone in my face and so they had to put it all back together. I have three plates and 72 screws in my face.”

Previous accidents, videos

Nik Wallenda , 40, argued against publicizing the video, saying he didn’t want Lijana to relive the trauma.

“I’ve had nightmares since I was a child seeing video of my great-grandfather falling, and it’s sort of haunted me my whole career,” he said. “So now it’s even more personal because it involves me, and it’s my sister who went through this. And I don’t want her to have to go through this mentally.”

Cameras rolled in 1978 as Karl Wallenda, 73, fell to a very public death from a high wire strung between two buildings in Puerto Rico. Rietta was assisting the wirewalk from below and was just feet away from her grandfather’s impact. But instead of attending his funeral, Rietta adhered to the family’s the-show-must-go-on motto and completed the engagement in San Juan.

Nik Wallenda, whose televised skywalks above Niagara Falls , the Little Colorado River Gorge near Grand Canyon National Park , and the Chicago skyline catapulted him into superstar status, was hoping for another epic with Circus Sarasota in 2017. He was aiming for a Guinness World Record mark for height in the eight-person pyramid. Instead, after the accident, he retooled the show with a depleted lineup and completed the three-week stand.

Portions of a 1962 Wallenda tragedy were caught on film during the live performance of the seven-person pyramid in Detroit. The collapse killed Karl Wallenda’s funambulist nephew Dieter Schepp and son-in-law Dick Faughnan. His son, Mario, was confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life.

That accident became the centerpiece for a made-for-TV biopic in 1977. Cathy Rigby played Wallenda’s niece Jana Schepp, who was balancing on a chair when the performers fell. Rietta was Rigby’s stunt double during filming in Sarasota.

In a 2017 Herald-Tribune story about the Circus Sarasota accident , Rietta said the impact jammed her right femur into and shattered her hip socket. She also broke her right arm and ankle, fractured her ribs, pelvis, cheekbone, jawbone, upper gum line and sinuses.