Attack on Donald Trump | Agents searched for Crooks before he opened fire

(Washington) Two local law enforcement officers stationed at the building complex where a gunman opened fire on former President Donald Trump went looking for the shooter before the shooting, the Pennsylvania state police chief said Tuesday.

Pennsylvania State Police Col. Christopher Paris told a congressional committee that two officers from the Butler County Emergency Services Unit were stationed at a second-floor window of the building complex that makes up AGR International.

They spotted Thomas Matthew Crooks acting suspiciously on the ground and left their post to go and get him with other law enforcement officers, he said.

Mr. Paris said he did not know whether officers could have seen Crooks climb to the roof of an adjacent building if they had remained at the window. A video taken by a lawmaker who visited the scene of the shooting Monday shows that a second-floor window of the building had a clear view of the roof where Crooks opened fire; it was unclear whether the video showed the window where the officers were positioned.

Testimony by the Pennsylvania State Police commissioner before the House Homeland Security Committee provides new insight into security preparations for Mr. Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, but raises more questions about law enforcement’s decisions before Crooks opened fire.

Butler County Prosecutor Richard Goldinger, who oversees the emergency services unit, did not immediately respond to a text message from The Associated Press on Tuesday. A Secret Service spokesman did not respond to questions from the AP, including about the decision to order the officers off duty.

The revelation comes amid growing questions about a host of security breaches that allowed Crooks to climb onto the roof and fire eight shots from an AR-style rifle into the crowd shortly before Mr Trump’s speech.

One spectator was killed and two others were injured. The former president suffered an ear injury, but was not seriously injured.

Resignation that still resonates

Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned earlier Tuesday, a day after being chastised for hours by Democrats and Republicans alike for the agency’s failure to protect the Republican presidential nominee.^me Cheatle told lawmakers on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee on Monday that the assassination attempt was the Secret Service’s “most significant operational failure” in decades.

The Homeland Security Committee had also asked Mr.^me Cheatle to testify, but lawmakers said she declined. Ms.^me Cheatle was listed on a card placed on a table in front of an empty chair at the hearing, which began shortly before his decision to resign was made public.

Multiple investigations into the shooting by the Biden administration and representatives are underway. Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson and Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Tuesday they support creating a bipartisan task force to investigate the attack on Donald Trump.

The House could vote as early as Wednesday to create the task force, which will be made up of seven Republicans and six Democrats.

Local law enforcement began searching for Crooks after noticing he was acting strangely and seeing him with a rangefinder, a small binocular-like device that hunters use to measure the distance to a target.

Law enforcement went looking for him but couldn’t find him near the building, and a local officer went up to the roof to investigate. The gunman turned and pointed his rifle at him. The officer didn’t — or couldn’t — fire a single shot. Crooks opened fire on the former president seconds later, officials said.

M^me Cheatle acknowledged that the Secret Service had been tipped off about the suspicious person two to five times before the shooting, but there was no indication at that time that he had a weapon. She also revealed that the rooftop from which Crooks opened fire had been identified as a potential vulnerability days before the rally.

She said Donald Trump would never have been brought on stage if the Secret Service had known there was a “real threat,” but Crooks was not considered a “threat” until seconds before the shooting began.

Authorities searched for clues about Crooks’s motivations but found no ideological leanings that could help explain his actions. Investigators who searched his phone found photos of Mr. Trump, Joe Biden and other senior government officials and discovered that he had searched for the dates of the Democratic National Convention as well as Trump’s appearances. He also searched for information about major depressive disorder.