Source: Police alerted Secret Service before shooting about suspect at Trump rally

Before a would-be assassin targeted Donald Trump during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday, local law enforcement officials informed the former president’s Secret Service that they were searching the area for a suspicious person, a U.S. official told NBC News.

The suspect, later identified as 20-year-old Thomas Crooks, was first reported to local police officers by rally attendees on their way to the event. Attendees reported seeing Crooks pacing near the magnetometers and behaving strangely, four officers told NBC News.

Local law enforcement officers began pursuing Crooks on foot, officials said. During the pursuit, the U.S. official said, local police notified the Secret Service that they were looking for a suspicious person near the venue.

It is not clear when the Secret Service was notified and whether it happened before Trump took the stage on the grounds of the Butler Farm Show, a venue about 36 miles north of Pittsburgh. The U.S. official said the Secret Service was notified of a suspicious person before local police spotted Crooks on the roof of a nearby glass research company building. That discovery came shortly before Crooks opened fire, according to two law enforcement sources.

The timing raises the question of whether other measures could have been taken to stop the crooks.

After the shooting, a Secret Service spokesman said the rooftop was outside the Secret Service’s central security perimeter and was primarily the jurisdiction of local law enforcement. The spokesman said it was standard practice for the Secret Service to coordinate with local law enforcement.

Current and former Secret Service officials told NBC News that responsibility for the safety of those protected by the agency ultimately rests with The Secret Service. The former officials said the agency identified the rooftop from which Crooks fired his rifle at Trump as a potential weak point before Trump took the stage.

Two former Secret Service agents said the agency could have deployed plainclothes counter-surveillance agents to stop the shooter.

Anthony Guglielmi, a Secret Service spokesman, said an independent investigative panel announced Monday would ultimately determine why the assassination attempt could not be prevented.

“Director Kimberly Cheatle has worked with the Secretary of Homeland Security and the White House to develop the independent investigative committee,” Guglielmi said. “She will ensure that it has the necessary authority and ability to investigate the entire incident, including planning, resources and personnel.”

The Secret Service did not immediately respond to questions about when it was informed of the threat.

Leading members of Congress are demanding answers about the attack, requesting briefings and planning investigations. Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson said on NBC’s “TODAY” program on Sunday that “the American people need to be informed and deserve to be informed about potential security lapses.”

The revelations about police communications before the shooting come amid growing evidence that at least half a dozen protesters pointed their fingers at the gunman as he stood in firing position on the roof, attempting to alert police and other protesters to the impending danger.

According to an NBC News review of video clips, the gunman crouched on the roof for at least two minutes before Trump was hit. Videos posted on social media and participants’ interviews with journalists show the growing panic people felt as they realized the potential threat.

A 52-second video shows a group of protesters outside the outdoor venue loudly calling attention to the shooter’s presence.

“There he is, right there,” says the man who apparently recorded the video, pointing upwards, a blurry finger briefly obscuring the lens. “Right there, do you see him? He’s lying there, do you see him?”

Seconds later, someone outside the camera’s field of view can be heard shouting what sounds like a warning to the police: “Officer!”

Trump can be heard over loudspeakers talking about “dangerous people” and “criminals” coming across the southern U.S. border while a woman screams, “He’s on the roof!” The woman screams continuously, “He’s right here! He’s right on the roof!” Then the video ends.

Anthony Cangelosi, a former Secret Service and Homeland Security agent who now works as an adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, said one of the key questions will be what happened in the minutes after protesters warned police about Crooks.

“After the boy was discovered, there must have been clear communication with the snipers,” Cangelosi said. “But was there also communication between the police and the Secret Service? Those are the answers we need to find out.”

In another video posted on social media, Trump can be heard talking about border security statistics displayed on a screen as some attendees begin shouting, “He has a gun!”

Rally spectator Greg Smith told the BBC that just minutes after Trump’s speech, he noticed a man apparently armed with a rifle “crawling up the roof like a bear” about 15 yards away from him. Smith, who was outside the rally’s security perimeter, said he aimed at the gunman for “two or three minutes” and tried to alert police.

“The police are running around on the ground down there. We say, ‘Hey man, there’s a guy with a gun on the roof,'” Smith told the British broadcaster. “The police were like, ‘Hmm, what?’ – like they didn’t know what was going on. We say, ‘Right here on the roof. We can see him from here. We can see him. He’s crawling.'”

He said Secret Service agents on a nearby roof apparently noticed them pointing, but may not have been able to see Crooks because of the slope of the roof he was on.

Smith realized the rally was in danger and his mind began to race. “I thought to myself: Why is Trump still speaking? Why didn’t they take him off the stage?”

“And before you know it,” Smith continued, “five shots are fired.”