Police encountered Trump assassin just before shots were fired

A new report reveals that police officers had an encounter with the man who attempted to take former President Donald Trump's life just before the first shots were fired. 

This information was first reported by the Associated Press.

"A local law enforcement officer climbed to the roof and found [20-year-old Thomas Matthew] Crooks, who pointed the rifle at the officer," the outlet reported.

It added, "The officer retreated down the ladder, and the gunman quickly fired toward Trump, the officials said. That’s when U.S. Secret Service gunmen shot him, the officials said."

A cowardly retreat?

Suffice it to say that the officers who encountered Crooks are facing criticism for their retreat. But, it appears that the criticism might not be warranted.

Fox News provides more details about what exactly happened between these officers and the shooter. It got the information from Retired Las Vegas Police Lt. Randy Sutton.

"Sutton says the officer was alerted to the gunman, now identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, and was attempting to confront him on the roof, but there was 'no ladder' or access point. The officer decided to reach Crooks by climbing onto the back of another officer, according to Sutton's sources," the outlet reports.

Fox then goes on to quote Sutton as saying, "As he was lifting himself up over the roof line, suddenly the suspect pointed his gun at him, the officer ducked down, and when he did, he fell off the back of the other officer."

Accordingly, Sutton is arguing that this was not a "cowardly act." He said, "This is an officer who made an observation, saw that he was about to be shot, and fell off the back of the other officer."

The big question remains unanswered

At the time of this writing, many big questions about the assassination attempt remain unanswered.

The biggest question of all, of course, is how this 20-year-old individual managed to get on top of one of the only roofs in the area, located only about 130 yards away from Trump, and how he managed to get several clear shots off against the former and potentially future president of the United States without being engaged by law enforcement.

Many experts are arguing that there are really only two possibilities here: either it was incompetence on the part of law enforcement - most especially on the part of the Secret Service - or law enforcement allowed or perhaps was even involved in the assassination attempt.

As stated, we still do not really know the answer to this question. At the moment, evidence seems to be pointing to the former assertion.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is investigating the matter, but many have already expressed skepticism about this considering that, ever since Trump got into politics, the FBI has not exactly shown itself been impartial. A case-in-point would be the FBI's role in the Trump-Russia Collusion Hoax.