Questions surrounding how would-be political assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks managed to get into a position just 100 feet from Donald Trump was speaking, take aim with a rifle and fire off at least eight shots, remain.
Crooks, 20, was shot dead by a Secret Service sniper moments after he opened fire at the Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13. The presumptive Republican nominee was wounded in the ear while supporter Corey Comperatore tragically lost his life.
In the aftermath of a seismic day in US politics, it now appears that it was sheer luck that Trump was not killed by Crooks’ gunfire which the ex-president’s ear and did not cause major injury.
The Secret Service is coming in for the most scrutiny of their handling of the event. The building that Crooks’ fired from was identified as a security risk but the shooter was still able to establish a position and fire off multiple shots.
New videos appear to confirm witnesses accounts that attendees at the rally notified law enforcement about Crooks’ presence after seeing him bear crawling and armed atop the building.
Officials have said that Crooks got into position on the rooftop of American Glass Research using a ladder. After witnesses alerted cops when they saw Crooks, one officer was hoisted by another on to the rooftop.
Once there, Crooks trained his gun on the officer, forcing him to duck for cover. Moments later, shots rang out, terrifying the crowd.
Trump was said to be in ‘great spirits’ on Sunday while telling the Washington Examiner that he has rewritten the speech he will deliver at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee this week.
Meanwhile, President Joe Biden spoke for about five minutes from the Oval Office and noted that the Republican National Convention was opening in Milwaukee on Monday, while he himself would be traveling the country to campaign for reelection.
He said passions would run high on both sides and that the stakes of the election were enormous.
But the president added, ‘it’s time to cool it down’ and noted not just the weekend attack on Trump but also the possibility of election-year violence on multiple fronts.
Here, the looks at five of the key unanswered questions surrounding the first assassination attempt in 43 years and the security lapses around it.
How did Thomas Crooks get on to the roof?
Police personnel standing over the body of the shooter on the rooftop
This 2021 photo provided by Bethel Park School District shows would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks who graduated from Bethel Park High School with the Class of 2022
Officials have confirmed that Crooks used a ladder to climb up to the roof of the American Glass Research building in Butler, along Evans Road.
It’s not clear for how long he was in the vicinity. Trump took the stage at 6:03pm, attendees began entering the grounds of the event around 1:00pm.
The crowd were forced to go through metal detectors before gaining entry. CNN reports that Crooks was reportedly acting suspicious around security. It’s not clear at what time that was reported.
A message was relayed to the Secret Service about Crooks, warning them to keep an eye on him.
According to the Associated Press, Trump supporters notified local cops who were patrolling the area about Crooks’ presence at 6:10pm.
The building was identified as a security risk. So why wasn’t it secured?
The building rooftop where Thomas Crooks was perched is shown here. It was to the right of where Donald Trump was facing when he was shot
Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said that the agency worked with local law enforcement to secure the area and that securing the perimeter was the responsibility of the Butler Township Police Department and the Butler County Sheriff’s Office.
The building that Crooks shot from was identified as a security risk so it’s not clear as to why it wasn’t properly secured.
Butler County District Attorney Richard Goldlinger disputed this somewhat when speaking to NBC News.
‘They had meetings in the week prior. The Secret Service ran the show. They were the ones who designated who did what. In the command hierarchy, they were top, they were No. 1,’ he said.
‘To me, the whole thing is under the jurisdiction of the Secret Service. And they will delineate from there.’
The officer who confronted Crooks on the roof was a member of the Butler Township Police Department.
Why did it take so long for snipers to take him out?
A member of the public is seen talking with a police officer before the shots rang out, the building where Crooks was perched is to the right
The Secret Service is still investigating the response to the gunshots.
It took ‘seconds’ for the sniper to kill Crooks, a law enforcement source told CBS.
The video reveals that it was 43 seconds between the first series of pops heard and a Secret Service agent saying: ‘The shooter is down.’
Initial reports indicate that Crooks managed to fire eight bullets into the crowd before being shot dead at 6:11 pm.
Trump was in the middle of describing a displayed chart at the time. ‘And if you want to really see something this sad… take a look at what happened…’
The next sound heard was a series of pops, as many as six can be heard.
The next sound is a male voice saying: ‘Get down! Get down! Get down!’ Five Secret Agents then swarm the stage and provide coverage for Trump. Another series of pop like sounds are heard.
It’s 12 seconds later that we hear a final volley of shots, less than 30 seconds after that a voice can be heard saying: ‘Shooter is down.’
The weapon used was an AR-15 style rifle chambered in 5.56mm. At least three attendees, including Comperatore, were hit. Donald Trump was wounded in the ear.
The others were described as being ‘critically injured.’
Why was the glass making building out of the security perimeter?
Butler Township snipers provided support to the Secret Service snipers who were monitoring the event
It’s not clear why the glass manufacturer’s building remained outside of the secure perimeter.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told ABC News Monday: ‘A direct line of sight like that to the former president should not occur. That’s why president Biden directed an independent review of the incident.’
A former Secret Service agent told NBC News that the mere presence of the building should have been enough to pique the interest of those charged with securing the event.
‘Just because it is outside of the perimeter, it doesn’t take it out of play for a vulnerability, and you’ve got to mitigate it in some fashion,’ the agent said.
Another former Secret Service agent, Anthony Cangelosi, told NBC that one of two scenarios is likely to be revealed. There was either no plan to deal with a potential sniper on the roof or there was an it was not executed.
‘I don’t like making any assumptions, but it does look like some mistakes were made, that this was preventable,’ Cangelosi added.
‘There will be an intensive review’ of the incident and ‘there’s going to be a massive realignment,’ said Joseph LaSorsa, a former Secret Service agent who served on the presidential detail. ‘This cannot happen.’
DA Goldlinger told CBS News that local law enforcement provided snipers to aid the Secret Service which means there was extra coverage.
Those local snipers were placed to the left of the Secret Service sniper who took out Crooks, disrupting their line of sight to Crooks.
During most of Trump’s campaign stops, local police aid the Secret Service in securing the venue. Agents from other agencies within the Department of Homeland Security, such as the Transportation Security Administration, occasionally help.
Many Trump rallies feature thousands of audience members, take place in the open air and last for hours.
Before the event, agents scan the venue for bombs or other threats, and Trump invariably arrives in a fortified motorcade.
Law enforcement officials typically put up barriers as a perimeter, and require all attendees to go through a metal detector to enter the venue. Armed protective agents search all attendees’ bags and even wallets.
Many rallygoers are patted down by hand.
Why did the cops not do anything?
Following the shooting, Trump put out a statement thanking the Secret Service for their ‘rapid response’ and offering his condolences to Comperatore
Video from the scene just before the gunfire began shows a man speaking with a local cop and appearing to point to the roof of the building where Crooks was lying in wait.
Other bystanders can be heard directing the officer to that roof top.
A witness told KDKA that the shooting began moments after he told a cop that he’d seen Crooks.
‘When I turned around to go back to where I was, it was when the gunshots started, and then it was just chaos, and we all came running away, and that was that,’ Ben Macer said.
Butler County Sheriff Michael Slupe told CBS News that when the cops were told about the sightings of Crooks, they began ‘searching’ for him.
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Slupe said an officer with the Butler County Township was hoisted on to the roof where he encountered Crooks.
‘All I know is the officer had both hands on the roof to get up on the roof, never made it because the shooter had turned towards the officer, and rightfully and smartly, the officer let go,’ Slupe said.
‘I would have done the same thing, absolutely. I mean, people think the officers are supermen like you hold on the roof with one hand while you are hanging on for dear life and pull a gun out. It doesn’t work that way.’
Paul Eckloff, a former Secret Service agent who retired in 2020, said agents would have surveyed all the rooftops with a line of sight ahead of time.
‘This person either concealed themselves until they became a threat, or were not a threat until they revealed their weapons,’ said Eckloff.