Police Team Tasked with Covering Roof was Inside Building During Trump Rally Shooting

Law enforcement sources familiar with the incident, speaking on condition of anonymity, have told Atlas News that local police snipers were responsible for covering the roof of AGR International, which is where gunman Thomas Crooks was positioned when he opened fire on the Trump rally, but were inside the building when the shooting began..One source told us that the delay in locating Crooks' whereabouts after he was spotted was due to an assumption that the roof was actively secure, causing confusion that wasn't resolved until shots were fired. The two Secret Service counter-sniper teams (CST) located on top of barns behind the rally podium were not originally intended to cover the direction of the AGR building, thus having a less than optimal viewpoint of the roof..Channel 11, citing multiple law enforcement sources, reported that a Beaver County ESU team "noticed a suspicious man [crooks] on a roof near the rally at 5:45 p.m., called it in, and took a picture of the person," which was nearly 30 minutes before shots were first fired..Likewise, 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.," but was unable to locate him, Channel 11 reported..Footage shows that rally goers witnessed Crooks on the roof of AGR International at least two minutes before he opened fire and attempted to alert nearby law enforcement..We were also told by another source that the officer who attempted to confront Crooks on the roof before the shooting was hoisted up by another officer. When the officer being lifted raised his head to see onto the roof, Crooks turned and aimed his rifle, causing the officer to fall backward. Before shots were fired, the officer was able to radio Crooks' location and that he was armed..The shooting, which lasted approximately 10 seconds, grazed Trump on the ear, killed an attendee, and critically wounded two others. Crooks was shot in the head and killed by counter-snipers.