Police alerted Secret Service about suspicious person at Trump rally before shooting, source says
The revelation raises questions about whether other measures could have been taken to stop the 20-year-old gunman before he tried to assassinate Donald Trump.
Before a would-be assassin took aim at Donald Trump during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday, local police officers notified the former president’s Secret Service detail that they were looking for a suspicious person in the area, a U.S. official told NBC News.
The suspicious person, later identified as Thomas Crooks, 20, was first flagged to local police officers by rallygoers on their way into the event. The attendees reported they saw Crooks pacing and behaving strangely near the magnetometers, four officials told NBC News.
Local police officers began pursuing Crooks on foot, the officials said. During the pursuit, the U.S. official said, local police told the Secret Service they were looking for a suspicious person near the event.
It is not clear what time the Secret Service was notified and whether it was before Trump took the stage on the grounds of the Butler Farm Show, a venue roughly 36 miles north of Pittsburgh. The U.S. official said the Secret Service was told of a suspicious person before local police discovered Crooks on the roof of a nearby glass research company’s building. That discovery occurred shortly before Crooks opened fire, according to two law enforcement sources.
The timing raises questions about whether other measures could have been taken to stop Crooks.
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