The police response to a suspicious person who ultimately tried to assassinate former President Trump in Pennsylvania on Saturday is coming into focus. According to WPXI, Thomas Crooks was seen by police in the vicinity of the American Glass Research complex, outside the security perimeter for Trump's rally in Butler, more than an hour before he opened fire. Police also snapped photos of him at least 26 minutes before the shooting and shared them with the Secret Service, per WPXI. Crooks was not initially seen with a gun. However, a Beaver County counter-sniper inside the AGR building spotted him with a range finder and informed the command center, per CBS News and BeaverCountian.com.
Crooks then appeared to be scouting out the AGR building. He returned later with a backpack and made his way to the roof after Trump had begun speaking a little more than 400 feet away, per BeaverCountian.com. The shooter was on the roof for fewer than seven minutes when a Butler Township police officer confronted him, per WPXI. Crooks reportedly aimed his rifle at the officer, who was unable to access his radio or weapon and dropped out of sight. Law enforcement sources tell WPXI that there were no local police in the building, only two sniper teams positioned nearby. But the Secret Service and other reporting disputes that.
Sources tell BeaverCountian.com that three local counter-snipers were stationed inside the building to scan the rally crowd. "Due to a lack of manpower, the men did not have spotters assigned to them," per the outlet. Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle said Tuesday that no snipers were positioned on the building's "sloped roof" due to safety issues. "The decision was made to secure the building from inside," she said, per the Washington Post. The outlet notes there's "emerging tensions" between the Secret Service, in charge of overall security, and local police, who patrolled areas outside the security perimeter, over who is to blame for the shooting. Multiple local law enforcement sources describe "extremely poor planning" around the event, per BeaverCountian.com. (More Trump rally shooting stories.)