Police warned Secret Service of a suspicious person at Trump rally before gunman opened fire, source says

 (Yesterday the Secret Service (SS) said it was all the local cops' fault. Today they returned the favor claiming they informed the SS there was a guy running around with a rifle. And according to the local cops, they did it long before that SS sniper had the shooter in his sites for about 40 seconds before letting him shoot Trump)

from NBC

Before a would-be assassin took aim at Donald Trump during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday, local police officers notified the former president’s Secret Service detail that they were looking for a suspicious person in the area, a U.S. official told NBC News.

The suspicious person, later identified as Thomas Crooks, 20, was first flagged to local police officers by rallygoers on their way into the event. The attendees reported they saw Crooks pacing and behaving strangely near the magnetometers, four officials told NBC News.

Local police officers began pursuing Crooks on foot, the officials said. During the pursuit, the U.S. official said, local police told the Secret Service they were looking for a suspicious person near the event.

It is not clear what time the Secret Service was notified and whether it was before Trump took the stage on the grounds of the Butler Farm Show, a venue roughly 36 miles north of Pittsburgh. The U.S. official said the Secret Service was told of a suspicious person before local police discovered Crooks on the roof of a nearby glass research company’s building. That discovery occurred shortly before Crooks opened fire, according to two law enforcement sources.

The timing raises questions about whether other measures could have been taken to stop Crooks...

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