Would-be Donald Trump assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks was seen on the roof 26 minutes before he opened fire, a shocking new report claims.
Officers at the scene noticed Crooks, 20, on top of the building just 130 yards from the rally scene and took two photos of him because he was acting suspiciously, sources said. WPXI.
It is unclear whether he had the AR-style rifle with him when he was first seen or whether it remained on the roof the entire time.
The shocking new allegations come as authorities and the U.S. Secret Service face mounting questions about how Crooks was able to shoot the former president and kill a member of the crowd at the rally.
Shortly after Trump was rushed away, the lifeless body of Thomas Matthew Crooks was seen on a rooftop surrounded by officers. His death was not confirmed until 7:24 p.m.
Law enforcement officials attending the event in Butler, Pennsylvania, are facing intense scrutiny after it was revealed the roof was flagged as a security “vulnerability.”
The local Pennsylvania sheriff defended the police officer who confronted Crooks on the roof moments before the shooting.
Butler County Sheriff Michael Slupe confirmed Monday that one of his armed deputies encountered the gunman seconds before he unleashed carnage at the former president’s rally.
The officer, whose name has not been released, retreated when Crooks pointed his AR-style rifle at him.
Slupe defended the decision, saying: KDKA He would have done the same.
‘All I know is that the officer had both hands on the roof to pull himself up, but he never made it because the shooter had turned toward the officer and, rightly and intelligently, the officer let go.
‘People think of officers as supermen, like you’re holding on to the ceiling with one hand while you hold on for dear life and pull out a gun. It doesn’t work that way.
Yearbook images have emerged of Thomas Matthew Crooks, the gunman who opened fire on former President Donald Trump during a rally in Pennsylvania.
Slupe also said members of his department were alerted to Crooks’ suspicious behavior before the demonstration began and immediately began searching for him.
Local police, not the Secret Service, razed the building, but Crooks was still able to climb to the top and take aim at the former president.
Slupe acknowledged that Crooks was in the “secondary ring” of protection when he opened fire.
He said the Secret Service is responsible for the ring immediately surrounding the president, but local police take control of the outer ring.
Trump grabbed his right ear as the first shots rang out at 6:12 p.m.
Attendees said they alerted the Secret Service to a man on the roof where the gunman was later killed.
The 78-year-old former president survived the horrific assassination attempt when the bullet missed him by less than an inch on Saturday afternoon.
This came eight minutes after he took the stage at 6:03 p.m. ET, where Trump began his remarks by pointing to a large graphic in the same direction where the shooter was atop an AGR International building.
Even before he took the stage, Trump supporters said they saw the gunman “crawling” across the roof with a rifle, but claimed their warnings to the Secret Service were ignored.
“I was thinking, ‘Why is Trump still talking? Why hasn’t he been taken off the stage?'” one witness told the BBC. “The next thing I knew, five shots were fired.”
With the sun still high on a bright day, Trump appeared with the song “God Bless the USA” playing over loudspeakers at 6:03 p.m. and stood waving and shaking his fist at the crowd for several minutes.
Trump pulled out a large graph with statistics about the migration crisis at the southern border and told the crowd at 6:11 p.m.: “That graph is a couple of months old…”
“If you want to see something really sad, take a look at what happened,” Trump continued, before abruptly clutching the side of his head as loud “pops” filled the space at the event.
The 78-year-old fell to the ground in an instant as five more shots rang out in rapid succession, before four Secret Service agents rushed onto the scene and pounced on the former president.
Shocking images showed Trump cowering on the ground as officers protected him, blood dripping down his cheek.
Several more Secret Service agents continued to flood the stage, while four heavily armed officers lined the perimeter ordering attendees to “get down.”
The sniper, sitting 400 feet in front of the rally on an exposed rooftop, fired another shot at the stage a second later as Trump fans streamed out of the stands.
“The guy turned around and got caught between the benches and got shot in the head. There was a lot of blood and he had brain matter,” the man told CBS News.
The Secret Service rushed to take control of the pandemonium as three attendees were shot, one fatally, within seconds.
An emergency room doctor who had blood splattered on his shirt later said he sprang into action to perform emergency CPR on a victim.
“The guy turned around and got caught between the benches and got shot in the head. There was a lot of blood and he had brain matter,” he told CBS News.
“I gathered him together and got people to help me a lot. I also did chest compressions and CPR.”