A police officer who works on a local anti-sniper team was inside those quarters of the building – from which accused would-be presidential assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks managed to climb onto a balcony and fired four shots at Donald Trump, law enforcement sources told The Post.
Sources said that the building — located at the AGR International Inc. factory in Butler, Pennsylvania — had been commandeered by local police as a “watch post,” from which snipers could draw beads on any threats while Trump spoke 130 yards away onstage.
However, sources say police were in the building and not on the roof at the time of shooting.
Crooks successfully reached the top of the building, shooting off eight rounds with an AR-type assault rifle. He shot one Trump supporter, who later died, wounded two others, and grazed Trump in the ear.
At the time of the shooting, Crooks was wearing a Demolition Ranch shirt.
The latest information follows reports by local TV station WPXI that the suspect, Crooks, had been seen approaching the building 26 minutes before he opened fire.
The building Crooks fired from was about 130 yards away and has since been removed after the assassination attempt.
Minutes before the shooting, an officer from the Butler Township Police climbed on top of another cop’s shoulders to peer over a roof at Crooks — but retreated after hearing he’d aimed his gun back.
Crooks was killed by snipers from the Secret Service just seconds after he opened fire on a crowd that shot Trump and fatally wounded another person.
Multiple other agencies were assigned to secure the perimeters, reports say. Secret Service Representative Anthony Guglielmi noted a shooter opened fire in an area under control by regional patrol officers.
In addition, law enforcement sources said cops had gone through the building before the event and that their local sniper team used Baylor’s “huge” manufacturing site to act as a staging point and lookout post but didn’t get on top of any big buildings for UIS or perhaps everyone was afraid it would block the Secret Service snipers.
As previously reported by The Post, neighbors near the farm show grounds said they were never contacted by police to establish patrols in the days ahead of the event and photos from a perimeter gate at the facility where the shooter was able to gain access showed that it had only been zip-tied shut.
Video from the rally showed members of Secret Service counter-sniper team officers who shot Crooks dead lining up their rifles on him long before he began shooting at sires, but it was not immediately clear if they had seen him.
Butler City Police said AGR grounds are not within their jurisdiction.