Trump shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks was spotted on roof 26 minutes before assassination attempt on former President as questions are asked why the intruder was not immediately dealt with.
A new report has stated Donald Trump‘s would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks having been spotted on the roof 26 minutes before the 20 year old opened fire on the former president during a Saturday rally in Pennsylvania.
Cops at the scene noticed Thomas Crooks, 20, on top of the building just 130 yards away from the rally stage and took two photos of him because he was acting suspiciously, sources told WPXI.
It’s not clear if he had the AR-style rifle on him when he was first seen scaling the AGR International Inc. factory or if he stayed on the roof for the whole time.
Plenty of time and opportunity to eliminate the threat. #J13 #MAGA2024 pic.twitter.com/WemvQ4E2yn
— Beyond The Masks (@_BeyondTheMasks) July 15, 2024
Why wasn’t intruder immediately dealt with?
Local police used the building as a ‘staging area’, leading to questions on Monday night over whether officers were inside when Crooks pulled the trigger at least eight times.
The allegations come as authorities and the U.S. Secret Service face mounting questions over how Crooks was able to shoot the former president and kill a member of the rally crowd.
Video on social media shows witnesses pointing at the roof and shouting at officers trying to warn them. MAGA fans also say they alerted law enforcement to Crooks as he crawled to his shooting position, but he was still able to shoot.
Law enforcement at the event are facing intense scrutiny after it was revealed the roof was flagged as a security ‘vulnerability’.
Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle said on Monday night that she would not resign despite mounting calls for her to step aside over the huge lapses that led to one of the most horrific acts of political violence in history.
The local Pennsylvania sheriff defended the police officer who confronted Crooks on the roof moments before the shooting.
Butler County Sheriff Michael Slupe confirmed on Monday that one of his armed officers encountered the gunman seconds before he unleashed carnage on the former president’s rally.
Cop who confronted would be assassin retreated
The cop, who has not been named, retreated when Crooks pointed his AR-style rifle at him.
Slupe defended the decision and told KDKA he would ‘have done the same thing.’
‘All I know is the officer had both hands on the roof to get up on the roof, never made it because the shooter had turned towards the officer, and rightfully and smartly, the officer let go.
‘I mean, people think the officers are supermen like you hold on the roof with one hand while you are hanging on for dear life and pull a gun out. It doesn’t work that way.’
Slupe also said that members of his department were alerted to Crooks’ suspicious behavior before the rally began and started searching for him right away.
Local police, not the Secret Service, swept the building, but Crooks was still able to climb to the top and take aim at the former president who survived the attempt on his life, despite a bullet piercing the top right of his ear, leading to blood strewing down Trump’s face.
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 around the president, but local police take control of the outer ring.
Even before he took the stage, Trump supporters said they spotted the gunman ‘bear-crawling’ across the roof with a rifle, but claimed their warnings to Secret Service were ignored.
‘I’m thinking to myself “Why is Trump still speaking, why have they not pulled him off the stage,”‘ one witness told the BBC. ‘The next thing you know, five shots ring out.’
EYE WITNESS describes to BBC News reporter seeing man with rifle on roof of building firing shots at President Trump rally in Pennsylvania before being shot by Secret Service pic.twitter.com/8Dfk19FsgH
— Georgina (@gs_mick) July 13, 2024
Gross incompetence?
The witness, Greg, estimated the shooter was on the roof, in plain view, for at least three or four minutes before opening fire. He said it’s possible that the agents on top of the barn and on the ground couldn’t see the man because of the slope of the roof.
The sighting of Crooks seemingly unobstructed by security as he crawled along the roof with rifle in tow led many to wonder how was it that the Secret Sniper team —who was captured training their guns at least 42 seconds before Crooks got his shots off — before ‘neutralising’ the sniper threat.
Had someone told the secret sniper team to hold off, to let Crooks at least get his first shots off? Or again was this just another incidence of incompetence and gross negligence to properly perform security detail?
President Joe Biden on Sunday said he directed US Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle ‘to review all security measures – all security measures – for the Republican National Convention.’
