Shortly before the first shot, participants of the rallysaw a man climbing to the top of a roof of a nearby building – 130m (430ft) away from Trump.
They immediately warned local law enforcement.
One officer climbed to the roof and encountered 20-year old Thomas Matthew Crooks, who pointed his rifle at the officer.
The officer retreated down the ladder and Crooks quickly took a shot toward Donald Trump, but was immediately neutralized by the Secret Service’s snipers.
Home security has publicly admitted to the seriousness of the security failure which led to this situation being possible in the first place.
President Biden has said that he has the investigation under swift, independent review.
Reportedly, security at a rally begins with a site survey where they consider possible threats – where they could come from and how to extract someone from the crowd.
But some say that it’s obvious that nobody one swept the building prior to the rally, either – an unfortunate consequence of understaffing.
However, the US Secret Service has since said that they had assigned local police to provide cover for that building – the usual protocol for rallies.
Critics ask why drones are not used for security purposes.
A former US Army ranger and paratrooper, Thomas Gleason, who was at the rally himself, pointed out that the rooftop was the most logical place to shoot from.
At any rate, the unsecured areas were not protected well enough – particularly given the fact that this incident took place in an open carry state.
Others have pointed out that security fumbled in hurrying Trump away even after the shooting, mayhem would have potentially opened the way for another shooter, given the opportunity.
The shooter was not in the FBI’s radar and his motives remain unclear, particularly as investigation into his laptop has only revealed inoffensive searches. What we do know is that he was from a fairly affluent community, and that he wore hunting clothes and was associated with his school’s rifle club. His father bought an AR rifle six months ago, which his son told him he was borrowing to go to a hunting range – which he did do, to practice shooting before heading towards Trump.
On Friday, he went to a shooting range where he was a member, and practiced firing, a law enforcement official told CNN. The next morning, Crooks went to a Home Depot, where he bought a five-foot ladder, and a gun store, where he purchased 50 rounds of ammunition, the official said.
One crowd member was killed and two others were critically injured.
Trump himself was wounded in the ear.
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