Butler Township Town Manager Tom Knights spoke to the media and issued a statement Wednesday afternoon on the contact one of their police officers had with Thomas Crooks, the would-be assassin of President Trump on Saturday, saying the officers involved had radioed a warning on a “blanket tactical channel” about the gunman.
Knight’s statement explained that the only role assigned to local police that day was for traffic control for the arrival and departure of Trump’s motorcade at his rally being held at the Butler Farm Show venue.
Several officers broke away from the post after Trump’s arrival around 6 p.m. to respond to a report of a suspicious man at the AGR building near the rally site. The officers did not find a ladder in a perimeter search nor see the suspect until one officer was hoisted up by the other so he could grab hold of the edge of the roof and peer over. Crooks pointed his rifle at the officer, who dropped back as he was unable to defend himself. Upon hitting the ground from the eight foot drop, both officers radioed in there was a gunman on the roof. An undefined “moments later”, Crooks started firing at Trump, wounding his right ear but killing one attendee and wounding two others near the stage.
Apparently no call went out in response to get Trump off the stage as Secret Service agents did not act to protect Trump until shots rang out and he fell to the stage after being hit and nearly killed by a headshot that miraculously only hit his ear.
Secret Service agents rushed former President Donald Trump off the stage in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13 after what sounded like a series of gun shots. pic.twitter.com/3a9EJGHig4
— NTD News (@NTDNews) July 13, 2024
Source:
NEW: Statement released by Butler Township.
“Upon Former President’s Trump arrival, a call went out for a suspicious male near the AGR building…A search
was conducted around the AGR building and the person of interest was not located, and no ladder was discovered.”@CNN pic.twitter.com/vE0O8fJuHl— Danny Freeman (@DannyEFreeman) July 17, 2024
Knight told a similar account while speaking to a reporter:
The officer who confronted Thomas Matthew Crooks on the roof radioed a “blanket tactical channel” that there was “an individual on the roof with a weapon” before the assassination attempt on President Trump.
Why wasn’t President Trump immediately evacuated?
Was the Secret… pic.twitter.com/c2J0KlQEwF
— KanekoaTheGreat (@KanekoaTheGreat) July 17, 2024
Earlier Wednesday, the Washington Post reported Butler Township had told the Secret Service it could not police the AGR building (excerpt via The Hill):
Ahead of former President Trump’s rally on Saturday, local police informed the Secret Service that they didn’t have the manpower to station a patrol car outside the building a gunman later climbed to shoot at the presidential candidate, The Washington Post reported.
District Attorney Richard Goldinger of Butler County, Pa., the town where the Trump rally took place, said the Secret Service “was informed that the local police department did not have manpower to assist with securing that building.”
The Post had Goldinger’s account confirmed by a Secret Service official familiar with the incident.
The Secret Service official told the outlet the agency considered placing an officer outside the building to mitigate the chance that a shooter gets a clear line of sight on Trump via higher ground. The agency prepares for such a scenario at all public events.
…The Secret Service agent told the Post that there had been a proposal in advance planning to station a patrol car and officer outside the building complex, which had a large roof about 150 yards away from where Trump was standing.
Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle earlier this week said no agent had been placed on the building out of safety because it had a “sloped roof.”
