Local official says blaming Butler police for Trump rally security failure 'couldn't be more wrong'

BUTLER TOWNSHIP, Pa. — In the days since a gunman tried to assassinate Donald Trump, a township in rural Pennsylvania has received a barrage of hate mail and angry phone calls blaming its officers for failing to keep the former president safe.

Now Butler Township Manager Tom Knights is pushing back. “They couldn’t be more wrong,” he said in an interview Tuesday.

For more on this story, watch NBC’s “Nightly News with Lester Holt” tonight at 6:30 p.m. ET/5:30 p.m. CT.

Despite the dozens of local, state and federal law enforcement officers on the scene, Knights said it was four Butler Township officers assigned to traffic duty who bolted from their post and raced to confront the gunman, with one clinging to the roof where the would-be assassin was perched.

“Our officers acted instinctively, did their job, followed the training that they had,” Knights told NBC News.

The gunman, Thomas Crooks, 20, opened fire minutes into Trump’s speech, piercing the former president’s ear, killing one person in the crowd and injuring two others.

The attempt on Trump’s life, which missed only by inches, has prompted strong criticism of the Secret Service by law enforcement experts and members of both parties. It has also set off a wave of finger-pointing across multiple law enforcement agencies as to who was responsible for securing the building the gunman used.

The Secret Service has blamed local authorities, without naming specific agencies.

Knights said the township’s officers did everything they could to stop Crooks.

The officers were assigned to manage traffic Saturday afternoon outside the Trump rally at the Butler Farm Show, an outdoor venue. But they leapt into action when they heard a radio call about a suspicious person on the