An Air Force veteran attending former President Trump’s campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13 noticed significant security issues before Thomas Crooks carried out an assassination attempt that resulted in one fatality and critically wounded two others.
Sarah Taylor, an 18-year vet who had served in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Kuwait, shared with Fox News Digital that her enthusiasm for her first Trump rally quickly turned to unease. Despite being positioned some 100 yards from the stage, where the president was addressing the crowd, she and her companion were immediately struck by the presence of an “eerie” building looming behind them.
“The fence was there. Right behind us was the building the shooter was on,” she recalled. “And we talked about it a lot because it was just really eerie, and my spidey senses were up. I had been in the military for 18 years, and something was not right about that area.” She noticed some local police and state troopers walking around a field outside the American Glass Research (AGR) building from which Crooks eventually fired, but there was no law enforcement presence on the roof.
“We just kept looking back at it thinking, ‘Something’s not right,'” Taylor said. “… I’m used to looking at my surroundings. I was deployed overseas — I knew something wasn’t right.” She added that she had a direct line of sight toward the president and also saw “sharpshooters” to her left.
“At some point, I don’t know what time it was — [Trump] was supposed to speak at 5. He didn’t speak until 6. So a little bit before 5, I noticed that [the sharpshooters] got up and they got an angle. And the one sharpshooter that was standing to the right of the gentleman with the gun. I think he was the lookout — had binoculars, and it was kind of like they saw something,” she said. “Prior to that … they were just setting up that kind of stuff, but it seemed like there was something that provoked their attention,” she added.
Following the assassination attempt, lawmakers and FBI Director Christopher Wray confirmed that law enforcement had observed the suspects near 5:10 p.m. on the day, precisely an hour before President Trump was scheduled to speak. At that time, snipers captured photographs of the suspects and reported to command that they were acting suspiciously, Fox noted.
At the time, Taylor believed she might have simply been “overthinking” the situation. Now, reflecting on the event, she wonders why no law enforcement officials noticed the same security lapses that had worried her. “There should have been counter-snipers on top of that [AGR] building,” she said.
Taylor also credits the former president’s campaign production team for saving his life, stating that just after Trump began speaking, he directed his team to remove the teleprompters in front of him. He then directed his team to project immigration statistics on a large screen. As he shifted his gaze from the teleprompter to the screen displaying immigration statistics, gunfire erupted, Taylor remembered. “I’m pretty sure whoever was running that part saved his life,” Taylor said, adding that the millisecond shift in Trump’s gaze is literally why he is alive today.
“They’re supposed to be the best trained in the world to protect our president and vice president,” Taylor said of law enforcement and the U.S. Secret Service. “If this is their normal day-to-day, we’re in a lot of trouble.”
Disclaimer: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author’s opinion.