The Secret Service informed the Trump campaign in passing of a general uptick in threats against Trump, but the campaign was not made aware of any specific threats from an Iranian individual or group, a source familiar with the exchange told NBC News.

The U.S. obtained intelligence in recent weeks about an Iranian plot to assassinate Trump, which led the Secret Service to increase security around him.

There was no indication, however, that the plot had any link to Saturday’s assassination attempt. U.S. investigators say the evidence so far indicates the gunman, Thomas Matthew Crooks, acted alone.

The U.S. obtained intelligence in recent weeks about an Iranian plot to assassinate Trump, which led the Secret Service to increase security around him.

There was no indication, however, that the plot had any link to Saturday’s assassination attempt. U.S. investigators say the evidence so far indicates the gunman, Thomas Matthew Crooks, acted alone.

In an interview with NBC News’ Katy Tur, Eric Trump called for the Secret Service to “get to the bottom” of the security breakdown that allowed the gunman to climb to an unsecured rooftop.

“These are some of the finest people you’ll ever meet and they would have taken a bullet for him, and they almost did that day — but there was some breakdown outside of his ecosystem,” Eric Trump said. “There was some breakdown and they better get to the bottom of it.”

Thomas Matthew Crooks shot at Trump from the roof of a building about 148 yards away from the stage where the former president was leading a rally. Crooks was outside the Secret Service’s security perimeter, making the building’s security the primary responsibility of local law enforcement.

Local police officers notified the former president’s Secret Service detail that they were looking for a suspicious person in the area before Crooks took aim at Trump, according to a U.S. official.

Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle said in an interview with ABC News that only “a short period of time” would have passed between such a warning and the shooting.

A couple who witnessed Donald Trump’s would-be assassin shimmy along a nearby roof and set up his shot panicked for several minutes as they shouted for law enforcement intervention and watched as those efforts failed.

Mike DiFrischia, and his wife, Amber, said they flagged a nearby police officer as soon as they saw a man begin to Army crawl up the roof near the start of Trump’s presidential campaign rally Saturday in Butler, Pennsylvania.

“We started hollering to cops, ‘Hey, he’s right there!’ We could see him on the roof,” DiFrischia, 46, told NBC News.

DiFrischia said the officer, who was wearing all black with a police badge on his back, was too close to the building and could not see the shooter.

Trump was already speaking at this point, DiFrischia said.

The urgency rapidly grew when the man on the roof, later identified by authorities as 20-year-old Thomas Crooks, was a quarter of the way to the top, DiFrischia said. That’s when the crowd noticed he was holding a firearm.

“Next thing you know, somebody behind me said, ‘That guy’s got a gun!’ Everybody started running and freaking out,” DiFrischia said. “I moved over and I could see the gun with my own two eyes.”

DiFrischia said he watched a different uniformed law enforcement officer attempt to pull himself up on the roof that the gunman was on but quickly release when he got about chin level.

“As soon as he got pulled up on the roof, he just let go and fell down to the ground,” DiFrischia said. “I said, man something must have startled him.”

At that point, DiFrischia, an avid hunter with 40 years of firearm experience, said there was nothing else to do but pull out his phone and start recording.

“I knew he was now getting into position to shoot something,” he said. “I was like, my God, my heart dropped.”

Video shows shooter on roof at Trump rally
01:31
His footage begins with Crooks lying on his stomach near the top of the roof. It ends with Crooks dead.

“I heard one shot and then it was bam, bam, bam, bam,” Amber said. “And then it was all over.”

Last updated on September 13th, 2024 at 09:21 pm