Exclusive: County officer warned he saw man with rangefinder before shooting Trump

A Beaver County police officer alerted a command center that he had seen a man with a rangefinder before former President Donald Trump was shot on Saturday. The officer had also warned that the man was scouting the roof of the building where he was stationed as a sniper and that the man returned with a backpack before scaling the building.

Despite all these warnings, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park was able to continue with his plan to become Trump's would-be assassin.

BeaverCountian.com spoke with several local law enforcement sources about the security provided by agencies in Beaver, Butler and Washington counties during Saturday's rally. They claim that a lack of manpower and “extremely poor planning” put the former president's life in grave danger.

While the United States Secret Service provided security within a secure perimeter of the rally, local law enforcement agencies were tasked with securing the areas outside of the magnetometers monitoring those attending. the demonstration when they entered the compound.

Contrary to several national media reports, agents say the building just outside a security perimeter established by the Secret Service was in fact occupied by law enforcement.

“There were three snipers located in the building that the shooter ultimately used to shoot Trump,” an agent told BeaverCountian.com.

The officers spoke to BeaverCountian.com on the condition that they not be named because of ongoing investigations by the Pennsylvania State Police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

A security operations plan had placed each of the three snipers inside the building looking out the windows at the demonstration, with none stationed on the roof. Due to the lack of manpower, the men were not assigned observers, as would be standard operating procedure.

Among those municipal snipers was Sergeant Gregory Nicol of the Monaca Borough Police Department. Nicol was providing security at the Trump rally in his role as a member of the Beaver County Emergency Services Unit (ESU), the county's equivalent of a SWAT team.