Video shows Trump supporters yelling, pointing, alerting officers of shooter on roof

Video footage recorded by attendants at former President Donald Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday shows the suspected shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, crawling around on the roof of a nearby building.

As the former president is speaking, the Trump supporter shows people watching Crooks. A woman starts yelling, “he’s on the roof. Right there, flat on the roof.”

A police officer was reported to have encountered Crooks on the roof, but after Crooks pointed his gun at the officer, he climbed out of the shooter’s line of sight. Moments later, Crooks started shooting, grazing Trump but killing firefighter and father Corey Comperatore.

The building where Crooks was camped out, hundreds of feet from the stage, was outside the event’s security perimeter. However, the Secret Service was aware of the security risk, sources told NBC News.

The Secret Service collaborated with Butler authorities in detailing its security plan but had designated the area around the rooftop as being under the jurisdiction of local law enforcement. However, Butler County District Attorney Richard Goldinger was told by Butler’s Emergency Services Unit that the responsibility for securing areas outside the venue was on the Secret Service.

A former Secret Service agent said in the case of a threat, it always falls on the Secret Service to act beforehand or in the moment.

“Just because it is outside of the perimeter, it doesn’t take it out of play for a vulnerability, and you’ve got to mitigate it in some fashion,” the source told NBC News.

Now lawmakers and former Secret Service agent Anthony Cangelosi are questioning how Crooks was able to get on the roof.

“You don’t surrender the discretion of what’s supposed to be done to the local police,” Cangelosi told NBC News. “In other words, you guys have the outer perimeter, but you would want to say, ‘We need an officer on that roof.’ Not ‘that’s your responsibility. Do what you see fit.’”

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Jim Cavanaugh, a retired special agent in charge with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, said he sees the Secret Service’s failure to post an officer on the roof as a major lapse in judgment.

Rep. Mark Green (R-TN) sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas requesting documentation related to the event’s security plan. Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) sent a letter to Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle requesting to see if a proper threat assessment was conducted, if authorities and agents were alerted of the risk, and if protocols were properly followed.