Officer Comes Face-To-Face With Thomas Matthew Crooks Moments Before Shooting

Four days after the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, investigators continue to look into the suspect's background, interview hundreds of bystanders and individuals who knew the 20-year-old gunman, and inspect video footage from the Pennsylvania rally.

Now, the Butler County Sheriff's office has confirmed that an officer came face-to-face with the suspect, Thomas Matthew Crooks, seconds before the 20-year-old opened fire at the Donald Trump rally.

Many are beginning to question how law enforcement and the Secret Service handled the situation, as some attendees say they noticed Crooks on the roof before he began shooting and tried to warn police.

"A guy behind me said that he had seen him. He had a gun. And then when he said that, I moved over a couple feet, and I was able to see him perfectly, and I saw he had the gun. That's when I started to film," bystander Mike DiFrischia said.

Stan Kephart, a former police chief who provided security for two former presidents, described the shooting as an "absolute and abysmal failure" by the Secret Service in their duty to protect Trump, per The Associated Press. “You don’t get to blame other people. They are under your control," he added.

According to WGAL, Sheriff Michael Slupe stated that Butler Township officers received reports of a suspicious individual outside the rally perimeter on Saturday and proceeded to search for that person.

One of the responding officers spotted the suspect, later identified as Crooks, on the roof of the building, approximately 400 to 500 feet from the stage. He then climbed up to investigate.

"All I know is the officer had both hands up on the roof to get up onto the roof. Never made it because the shooter had turned towards the officer, and rightfully and smartly, the officer let go," Slupe said, before praising the officer for his bravery.

"I'd have done the same thing. Absolutely. I mean, people think officers are Superman, like, you hold on to the roof with one hand while you're hanging on for dear life and pull a gun out of here. And it doesn't work that way," Slupe said.

Immediately after the cop backed off, Crooks began firing toward Trump, and within seconds, a Secret Service agent shot and killed Crooks.

While the officer didn't stop Crooks from shooting, he is still being labeled as a hero because if he hadn't approached the suspect on the roof, it wouldn't have delayed the shots fired, and Trump would not have turned his head in time to miss the bullet. 

“Now timing is everything … He turns around and at this point in the speech, obviously as we all know, the president is looking way back to his right and he gets hit on the ear,” the sheriff said, per The New York Post. “Can you imagine 10 seconds before that? That the president was looking straight ahead and where that bullet could have potentially landed."

He then recounted the sequence of events leading up to the attempted assassination of former president Donald Trump. “Right now, (the shooter is) training on the president. These guys breach the roof,” the sheriff said of the two cops responding to the call. “So he turns around and potentially eliminates that threat."

“The officer is like ‘I’m dead or I drop. I drop.’ He turns back around,” he said of the shooter.

Butler Township Manager Tom Knights informed NBC News on Tuesday that the officer ducked his head, lost his grip, and fell eight feet to the ground.

“When someone points a gun at you and you can’t get to your weapon, you tell them a–holes online that they are Superman,” Slupe said. “Like ‘I’ll just pull a gun out and they can shoot at me. I don’t give a sh-t.’ Yeah. Mm-hm. Right, right.”

A motive for the shooting remains under investigation.