According to a new report by Fox News, the parents of Matthew Thomas Crooks contacted law enforcement to express concerns about their son in the hours leading up to the attempted assassination of President Trump.
Details of the phone call have not been disclosed.
NBC News previously reported that Crooks’ father called the police after the attempted assassination to report that his son and one of his rifles were missing.
It was also reported that Crooks’ father had more than a dozen firearms in the home.
More from Fox News:
DEVELOPING: Fox News reports Thomas Matthew Crooks’ parents called police to report concerns about their son on the day of the attempted assassination of President Trump.
Drew Hernandez – @DrewHLive
Law enforcement on the ground was alerted to Crooks after he climbed onto a roof near the event.
According to NBC News, the Secret Service identified the rooftop next to Trump’s Butler, Pennsylvania event as a security vulnerability days before the rally. However, agents failed to secure the building, allowing a man with a rifle to climb up, position his scope, and fire several shots at President Trump from an elevated position.
In a video posted to X, the would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks was seen bear crawling on the roof as bystanders pointed him out to law enforcement.
An officer was right next to the building as bystanders alerted him to the potential threat.
WATCH:
“Wild video shows the shooter crawling into position while folks point him out to law enforcement at Trump rally.”
Moshe Schwartz – @YWNReporter
One Trump rallygoer told CBS News, “I was just standing there like everyone else, just waiting for Trump. And as Trump started, I noticed two officers looking for something or somebody.”
The witness added, “So I was looking around myself and saw a guy on top of one of the buildings moving between one building to the next and went and told the officer he was up there.”
Another witness who spoke to BBC News said the gunman was ‘bear crawling’ up the roof of the unsecured building. The witness said he was pointing at the gunman for two to three minutes, trying to alert police to the potential threat.