Trump rally shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks was perceived by the U.S. Secret Service as a "person of interest," not yet a "threat" after law enforcement saw him acting suspiciously and determined he had a golf range finder, according to Secret Service Spokesman Anthony Guglielmi.
Crooks was only identified as a threat when he "retrieved the weapon" and climbed onto the roof of a building just prior to the shooting on Saturday in
Butler, Pennsylvania, according to Guglielmi, who added that a threat requires, "a different protocol and a different course of action than a person of interest."
Guglielmi maintains that it was only once Crooks retrieved his weapon and got onto a building's roof in the area where Trump was holding the rally that he was identified as a threat.
Soon after that, Butler Township police officers confronted Crooks on the roof and he pointed his weapon at one of them, who then dropped off the roof.