by R. Cort Kirkwood, The New American:
A cop encountered would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks before he shot former President Donald Trump yesterday at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Crooks then fired at Trump, The Associated Press (AP) revealed today.
Rally attendees had warned cops that Crooks was on the roof of a building some 150 yards away from the stage where Trump was speaking.
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Unbelievable… According to AP a police officer encountered the Trump assassin before he took the shot
“Not long before shots rang out, rallygoers noticed a man climbing to the roof of a nearby building and warned local police, according to two law enforcement officials.
One… pic.twitter.com/0a5ItJgWtY
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Crooks tried to assassinate Trump at a rally packed with 50,000 people in the small town about 33 miles north of Pittsburgh.
A bullet struck Trump in the ear. Secret Service agents tackled him and rushed him off the stage. Trump raised a defiant fist and shouted “Fight, Fight, Fight!”
But just before Crooks fired the nearly fatal headshot, a cop confronted him on the nearby rooftop.
“Not long before shots rang out, rallygoers noticed a man climbing to the roof of a nearby building and warned local police, according to two law enforcement officials,” AP reported:
One local police officer climbed to the roof and encountered Crooks, who pointed his rifle at the officer. The officer retreated down the ladder, and Crooks quickly took a shot toward Trump, and that’s when Secret Service snipers shot him, said the officials, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.
Crooks had “rudimentary” bomb-making materials in his vehicle and at his home, AP also reported.
Witnesses Warned Cops
Two witnesses said they warned police about Crooks.
One crucial witness, Greg Smith, who saw the shooter moving to the roof, spoke with the BBC at length.
The witness said he noticed Crooks “bear-crawling” up the roof some 50 feet away:
We’re pointing at the guy crawling up the roof … he had a rifle. We could clearly see him with a rifle, absolutely. We’re pointing at him. The police are down there running around on the ground. We’re like, “hey man, there’s a guy on the roof with a rifle.”
Police didn’t seem to know what was happening, but Greg and others continued to point at the man. “Right here on the roof, we can see him from right here. We see him. He’s crawling,” Greg said.
“I’m thinking to myself ‘why is Trump still speaking,’” he continued:
Why have they not pulled him off the stage? I’m standing there pointing at him for you know, two or three minutes. Secret Service is looking at us from the top of the barn. I’m pointing at that roof. … And next thing you know, five shots ring out.
Greg said he is “100 percent” certain the shots came from Crooks. Crooks was there at least three or four minutes, he said:
We were telling the police. We were pointing at him for the Secret Service who were looking at us from the top of the barn. They were looking at us the whole time when we were standing by that tree [with] binoculars.
Greg said the agents probably couldn’t see Crooks. “But why is there not Secret Service on all of these roofs here. I mean, this is not a big place.”
The Secret Service “blew his head off,” Greg said. “There’s only a few buildings around here,” he said. “Why is Secret Service not on every building?”
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