BREAKING: FBI Launches Probe Into Local Officer Who Saw Gunman On Roof, Then Retreated

The FBI has launched an investigation into a local law enforcement officer who reportedly confronted former President Donald Trump’s would-be assassination, only to turn around and run for cover after the young man pointed his rifle at them.

Fox News reported on the probe which centers on a member of local law enforcement staffing the Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on Saturday. According to multiple media reports, an officer climbed a ladder to the adjacent rooftop where shooter Thomas Crooks was positioned. After Crooks turned to point his AR-15 rifle at the officer, they descended the ladder and backed away from the building. Crooks ultimately fired eight rounds from over 400 feet away, nicking President Trump’s right ear before being shot and killed by a Secret Service sniper rifleman.

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Sources close to the investigation told Fox that there is “great frustration” among local officers about their indecisive colleague who may have been able to prevent a shooting that started literally seconds later. Butler County Sheriff Michael Slupe previously told a local media outlet that the responding officer ducked for cover and did not engage Crooks with his own service weapon. “The officer had both hands up on the roof to get up onto the roof, [and] never made it because the shooter had turned towards the officer, and rightfully and smartfully, the officer let go,” he told KDKA-TV.

Video from the perimeter of the rally showed multiple attendees drawing attention to Crooks as he crawled for a better vantage point. His lifeless body was also captured on camera, and a shot of his face postmortem was circulated on X in the immediate aftermath.

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Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle is under tremendous pressure to explain the lapse in security protocol which is among the worst in the agency’s history and the first attempt on a current or former president’s life since President Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981. In an interview with ABC News on Monday, the Biden appointee claimed “the buck stops with me” but later appeared to blame local law enforcement for failing to secure the rooftop. She also defended her decision to leave the rooftop unguarded despite its clear line of sight to the stage, saying its slanted incline would have been a difficult position for a watchman.

“That building in particular has a sloped roof at its highest point. And so, you know, there’s a safety factor that would be considered there that we wouldn’t want to put somebody up on a sloped roof,” she told ABC News in an interview Tuesday, according to the Daily Mail. “And so, you know, the decision was made to secure the building, from inside.”