Trump gunman flagged by Secret Service 20 minutes before shooting
A counter sniper flagged a suspicious man using a rangefinder to the US Secret Service some 20 minutes before a gunman opened fire at a Donald Trump rally, according to members of Congress briefed by law enforcement. A clearer timeline of the events leading up to the assassination attempt has begun to emerge after closed briefings to lawmakers on Wednesday. Local police had initially spotted the gunman, who was acting strangely, at Saturday's Pennsylvania rally about an hour before the shooting, according to the briefings. They lost him in the crowd before he was spotted again by the counter sniper. The new information has raised more questions about why Trump's would-be assassin was not stopped sooner and why the former president was allowed to appear on the rally stage. Thomas Matthew Crooks, the 20-year-old suspected gunman, was reportedly spotted early by local police, who flagged him as a skinny young man who was behaving in a suspicious manner. They notified other police ...