Sniper Team Was Inside Building Where Trump Shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks Opened Fire

A new bombshell report has revealed that a team of snipers were inside the building where Donald Trump’s would-be assassin climbed onto the roof and opened fire despite being spotted 26 minutes earlier.

Cops at the scene noticed Crooks, 20, clambering into place in plain sight just 130 yards away from the rally stage and took two photos of him because he was acting suspiciously, sources told WPXI.

Meanwhile, a counter-sniper team was inside the building that was being used as a ‘watch post’ during the event when Crooks pulled the trigger, The New York Post reported.

It’s not clear if he had the AR-style rifle on him when he was first seen scaling the AGR International Inc. factory.

The shocking new allegations surfaced as authorities and the U.S. Secret Service face mounting questions over how Crooks was able to shoot the former president and kill a member of the rally crowd.

Law enforcement at the event in Butler, Pennsylvania are facing reporteely intense scrutiny after it was revealed the roof was flagged as a security ‘vulnerability’.

Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle said on Monday night that she would not resign despite mounting calls for her to step aside over the huge lapses that led to one of the most horrific acts of political violence in history.

The local Pennsylvania sheriff defended the police officer who confronted Crooks on the roof moments before the shooting.

Butler County Sheriff Michael Slupe confirmed on Monday that one of his armed officers encountered the gunman seconds before he unleashed carnage on the former president’s rally.

The cop, who has not been named, retreated when Crooks pointed his AR-style rifle at him.

Slupe defended the decision and told KDKA he would ‘have done the same thing.’

‘All I know is the officer had both hands on the roof to get up on the roof, never made it because the shooter had turned towards the officer, and rightfully and smartly, the officer let go.

‘I mean, people think the officers are supermen like you hold on the roof with one hand while you are hanging on for dear life and pull a gun out. It doesn’t work that way.

Slupe also said that members of his department were alerted to Crooks’ suspicious behavior before the rally began and started searching for him right away.

Local police, not the Secret Service, swept the building, but Crooks was still able to climb to the top and take aim at the former president.

Slupe acknowledged that Crooks was in the ‘secondary ring’ of protection when he opened fire.

He said the Secret Service is responsible for the ring immediately around the president, but local police take control of the outer ring.

The former president, 78, survived the horrifying assassination attempt when the bullet missed him by less than an inch on Saturday afternoon.

It came eight minutes after he took the stage at 6:03pm ET, where Trump began his remarks.

Even before he took the stage, Trump supporters said they spotted the gunman ‘bear-crawling’ across the roof with a rifle but claimed their warnings to the Secret Service were ignored.

‘I’m thinking to myself “Why is Trump still speaking, why have they not pulled him off the stage,”’ one witness told the BBC. ‘The next thing you know, five shots ring out.’