A local law enforcement officer reportedly encountered the shooter moments before he opened fire on former President Donald Trump during a Pennsylvania rally on Saturday.
Two law enforcement officials told the Associated Press (AP) that a local police officer had encountered the shooter, who the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) identified as being Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, from Bethel Park, Pennsylvania.
The AP noted that the law enforcement officials had agreed to speak to the outlet “on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.”
A local law enforcement officer reportedly climbed up to the roof of a nearby building where Crooks had positioned himself with a direct line to the former president.
Upon encountering Crooks, the officer reportedly went back down the ladder, after which he “quickly took a shot toward Trump,” the anonymous officials said, according to the AP.
While the Washington Post reported that Butler County Sheriff Michael T. Slupe said “seconds before” the shooter fired shots toward Trump that Crooks had “faced a municipal police officer who wasn’t able to neutralize him,” Slupe told Jennifer Borrasso, a reporter with KDKA-TV that he “never said that.”
NEW DETAILS TRUMP ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION Butler Co. Sheriff confirms an armed municipal officer w/ Butler Twp. encountered shooter Thomas Crooks before the shooting. This officer & others were previously alerted to a suspicious person and began searching for him @KDKA @CBSNews pic.twitter.com/lzG5q3Lgph
— Jennifer Borrasso (@JenBorrasso) July 14, 2024
“How would I know it was seconds?” Slupe said. “First of all. And, I never said that to begin with. The face-to-face thing, how could I know he was face-to-face? All I know is the officer had both hands up on the roof to get up onto the roof. Never made it, because the shooter had turned towards the officer and rightfully, and smartfully, the officer let go.”
Trump revealed after the shooting that he had been shot by a “bullet that pierced the upper part” of his “right ear.”
