Trump’s Assassination Attempt: Jonathan Willis’ sniper post sends social media into a tizzy

Former US President Donald Trump narrowly escaped death after a shooter opened fire at his election rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13. Donald Trump sustained a minor injury in his right ear, and was seen clutching his bloodied ear after as US Secret Service officers surrounded him and escorted him off the stage. The ex-president was just on minute six of his speech at the Republic rally when chaos erupted, and the shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks (20), perched on a rooftop fired multiple shots.

However, a widely circulated post claims that the individual behind it was the sniper who attempted to save Donald Trump’s life but was stopped by his superior. He said in his post: “My name is Jonathan Willis, I’m the officer in the famous photo of the two snipers on the roof at Trump’s rally. I came here to inform the public that I had the assassin in my sights for at least 3 minutes, but the head of the secret service refused to give the order to take out the perp. 100% the top brass prevented me from killing the assassin before he took the shots at president Trump.” And he added, “I didn’t follow the orders though, as soon as the shooter opened on Trump I returned fire despite strict orders to not engage. I had eyes on the shooter for three minutes watching him fiddle with his rifle and adjust the scope, it was obvious he was a shooter yet I wasn’t allowed to engage. After I killed the shooter I was arrested, questioned by the FBI, and just released an hour ago. Already lost my job for not following orders, but I’m glad I took the shots anyway.”

These claims have gained traction due to their direct accusation that the secret sniper team assigned to protect Donald Trump was implicated in the assassination attempt.