BUTLER TOWNSHIP, Pa. — Since a gunman attempted to assassinate Donald Trump, a rural Pennsylvania town has received a flood of hate mail and angry phone calls blaming its officers for failing to keep the former president safe.
Now Butler Township Manager Tom Knights is fighting back. “They couldn’t be more wrong,” he said in an interview Tuesday.
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Despite dozens of local, state and federal police officers on the scene, Knights said it was four Butler Township police officers assigned to traffic duty who fled their post and ran to confront the shooter, with one of them clinging to the roof where he would- being a murderer was perched.
“Our officers acted instinctively, they did their job, they followed the training they received,” Knights told NBC News.
The shooter, Thomas Crooks, 20, opened fire minutes after Trump’s speech, piercing the former president’s ear, killing one person in the crowd and wounding two others.
The attempt on Trump’s life, which missed by just inches, drew strong criticism of the Secret Service from law enforcement experts and members of both parties. It also triggered a wave of finger-pointing across multiple law enforcement agencies over who was responsible for security at the building used by the shooter.
The Secret Service blamed local authorities, without naming specific agencies.
Knights said county officials did everything they could to detain Crooks.
Officers were assigned to manage traffic Saturday afternoon outside Trump’s rally at the Butler Farm Show, an outdoor venue. But they sprang into action when they heard a radio call about a suspicious person on the roof of a nearby building, Knights said. Officers converged on the building, owned by a glass research company, but were unable to see anyone above as they were too close.
“Then two of the officers went to what appeared to be the lowest point from the floor to the roof,” Knights said. “One of the officers actually pushed the second officer enough that he grabbed the roof.”
“When he was able to get his head up from the roof, he actually saw an individual on the roof with a gun,” Knights said.
The shooter pointed the rifle at the police officer, who was hanging on the edge of the roof. The officer lowered his head, lost control and fell about 8 feet to the ground, Knights said.
The two police officers – the one who fell and the one who picked him up – turned on their radios to report that there was an armed person on the roof. Knights wasn’t sure how long after the gunman began shooting at Trump.
The building that the shooter managed to scale was less than 150 meters from the stage where Trump was speaking.
Knights said the building was identified as a “point of interest” in two security meetings before the weekend rally. “That was something they would be vigilant about in planning,” he said.
Knights said it was unclear which agency was supposed to watch the building. Officers from multiple agencies were called in to provide security at the event. O Butler Township Police Department has 12 full-time patrol officers.
The Secret Service said it was responsible for securing an internal perimeter. But the building was part of the outer perimeter and was therefore left to local authorities to protect.
“There were local police in that building,” Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle said in a statement. an interview with ABC News on Monday night. “There were local police in the area who were responsible for the outside perimeter of the building.”
Cheatle did not specify which agency she was referring to.
Knights said he hopes to see a full investigation into what went wrong.
“The investigation will shed a lot of light on how this entire event happened, how the entire situation unfolded,” Knights said. “And I would caution people not to make hasty, hasty judgments until the investigation is complete.”
Stephanie Gosk reported from Butler Township; Rich Schapiro reported from New York.
Emily Berk It is Deon J. Hampton contributed.
This story originally appeared on NBCNews.com read the full story
