Town Manager Defends Butler Police Against Criticism of Performance on Day of Trump Assassination Attempt

Butler, Pennsylvania’s Township manager, Thomas Knights, is defending local police officers' response to the assassination attempt against former President Trump at his rally on Saturday.

"I think there's some misconception about overall response. I can only speak for our officers transitioning from what was supposed to be a primary traffic control assistance to where it became … a suspicious person," the township manager told Fox News Digital in an interview Tuesday.

"I think our law enforcement did exactly what training taught them to do. … How subsequent events played out, that's another thing for what I hope to be a really complete report on the incident to educate everybody." 

"Once the suspicious individual report came out, and our police arrived in the immediate area of the building, they did do a perimeter search — were unable to see the person on top of the building from the vantage point," Knights explained. "So one of our other police officers … literally boosted one of our [other officers] up high enough in the air to grab hold of the edge of the roof."

The officer was able to pull himself up so that his "head was above the roof" because there was no other way to access the roof at that moment. The approximate distance from the ground to the edge of the roof where the officer got hold is 12 feet, Knights said.

The officer "did observe an individual on the roof," who "was identified as having a weapon" and "did point that firearm at our officer," Knights said. 

The officer took a defensive position from where he was hanging on the edge of the roof, ducked his head, and lost his grip, at which point he fell "approximately eight feet" to the ground and sprained his ankle, the township manager explained. 

"Both the lifting officer and the prone officer both called in [and] identified the individual on the roof as being armed."

Knights said he believes local officers' ability to identify the shooter did "minimize as best as possible the overall situation."

"The harshness of criticism from both sides of the spectrum has been pretty brutal and relentless," he said. "It's been going on for roughly two days now. Again, I think when the entirety of the investigation is done and we have the full, complete story of how this whole event unfolded, hopefully those that are … quick to send a hate email can send back an apology just as quickly."