The Secret Service agent who killed Donald Trump’s would-be assassin pulled off a ‘one-in-a-million’ headshot, an investigator has revealed.
Thomas Matthew Crooks was concealed behind the lip of the roof on a building more than 140 yards away from where the protection unit was stationed at the rally in Pennsylvania on July 13.
The agent had only the 20-year-old’s gun scope and a few square inches of forehead to aim at as his colleagues rushed to pull the injured ex-president off-stage.
But the agent felled the gunman with a single shot after a local tactical team had fired and missed, a source close to the investigation told Fox News.
The trigger was pulled seconds after the Crooks shot dead Pennsylvania fire chief Corey Comperatore, critically injured two others, and hit Trump in the right ear after scaling a building 147 yards away.
‘They were looking at him while he was looking at them,’ a senior federal law enforcement official told CNN on Wednesday.
A video of the moment, shot by onlookers, showed Crooks peering intently through the sights of his father’s AR-style weapon and firing towards the rally as onlookers screamed from the base of the building.
Instantly a return shot was heard and Crooks was pictured lying dead on the roof as those on the ground gasped in horror.
‘The Secret Service don’t f*** around man,’ one exclaimed. ‘Holy s***.’
The former president praised the Secret Service agents who came to his aid in his acceptance speech at the RNC on Thursday night.
‘They’re incredible people,’ he told delegates. The Secret Service agents were putting themselves in peril.
‘Bullets were flying right over them, missing them by a very small amount of inches. And then it all stopped.
‘Our Secret Service sniper from a much greater distance and with only one bullet used took the assassin’s life. Took him out.’
But the praise for agents in the ground is in stark contrast with the fury vented at Secret Service director Kimberley Cheatle who was pursued through the corridors of the RNC convention hall by angry senators demanding answers on Wednesday night.
She was in the Milwaukee convention hall to oversee security arrangements just hours after making a ‘cover-your-a** call’ to senators about the shooting in Pennsylvania on Saturday night.
Senators John Barrasso of Wyoming and Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee led the chase, complaining that they had not had a chance to put their questions to Cheatle during the call.
A frustrated Barrasso then issued an ultimatum to the security chief.
‘You put him within less than an inch of his life,’ Barrasso yelled at Cheatle. ‘So resignation or full explanation.’
She is due to appear before the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability at 10am on Monday after more details emerged of how Crooks was allowed to saunter around the rally site in Butler for hours without challenge, despite repeated warnings from members of the public.
The building he scaled had been left to local police to guard after Security Service chiefs deemed it too dangerous to place an agent on it due to its sloping roof.
Three police marksmen from neighboring Beaver County were reportedly stationed inside the building as Crooks climbed on the roof and let off his volley of at least six shots from just inches above their heads.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that the killer even flew a drone over the site just hours before the shooting.
Crooks allegedly flew the drone on a programmed flight path, and officials say that the predetermined path suggests Crooks had flown the small aircraft more than once in order to scope out the site of the rally.
Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi insisted his boss would not resign in a statement late Wednesday.
‘Continuity of operations is paramount during a critical incident, and US Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle has no intentions to step down,’ he said.
‘She deeply respects members of Congress and is fiercely committed to transparency in leading the Secret Service through the internal investigation and strengthening the agency through lessons learned in these important internal and external reviews.’