Counter Sniper Team Was Inside Building Where Trump Shooter Climbed on Roof and Opened Fire, Spotted 26 Minutes Before Shooting
July 16th, 2024Via: New York Post:
A local police counter-sniper team was stationed inside the building where attempted assassin Thomas Crooks climbed on the roof and fired on Donald Trump, law enforcement sources told The Post.
The building — the AGR International Inc. factory in Butler, Pennsylvania — was being used by local police as a “watch post” for snipers to scan for threats as the former president spoke onstage only 130 yards away, according to sources.
Cops were inside, but not on the roof during the shooting, sources said.
Crooks was able to scale the building unchallenged before firing off eight shots with an AR-style assault rifle, grazing Trump in the ear, killing one Trump supporter and wounding two others.
The revelation comes as local outlet WPXI reported the Crooks was spotted on the building 26 minutes before he opened fire — with one cop from the Beaver County Emergency Services Unit even taking a photo of the gunman before the shooting.
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This is from WPXI-TV, Alleged Trump shooter spotted by law enforcement nearly 30 minutes before shots fired, sources say:
Channel 11?s Nicole Ford confirmed that Beaver County’s ESU team had eight members at the rally, including snipers and spotters. According to Ford’s sources, one of them noticed a suspicious man on a roof near the rally at 5:45 p.m., called it in and took a picture of the person. We have learned from our sources the person in that picture is Thomas Crooks. We’re told it’s not clear if Crooks had a gun with him at that point.
According to multiple sources, a law enforcement officer had also previously seen Crooks on the ground and called him in as a suspicious person with a picture prior to 5:45 p.m. Our sources tell us an officer checked the grounds for Crooks at that point, but did not see him where the first picture was taken.
26 minutes after the second picture of Crooks was taken by law enforcement and the information called in, shots were fired from the roof of the American Glass Research building. Seconds later, a Secret Service sniper returned fire and killed Crooks.
I’m envisioning a cartoon of the inside of the building, with all the security people huddled over their desks, glued to their computer screens, while Crooks, carrying his gear, walks through the front door and up the stairs unnoticed.
Given the very low pitch of the roof, the top of the building’s wall facing Trump would be just a few feet lower in elevation than Crook’s rifle.
How about we examine the upper portion of that wall for any sort of penetrations–other than the official sniper team’s “lookout post” of course, which would have presumably been on the upper portion of that wall. (“Law enforcement sources said the building was swept by cops before the event and that the local sniper team used the large manufacturing site as a staging and lookout post”)
Nah, there’s probably not time, as the building needs to be immediately razed for a memorial site that was just approved a few days ago.
NH, you think too fast. We have to wait till the govt says how things were before we discuss any of them and not allow our unofficial selves to make any observations in the meantime. Cheatle says some part of the roof was sloped, so we must say sloped, not low or flat. Crooks could have worn magnets strapped to his body so he wouldn’t slide off. But I didn’t see any! That’s not an observation! It’s a… hypothetical! Totally out of place, forgive me, govt. (But that image too would make a funny cartoon).
Love the calliope, Kevin!