It is “surprising” the ease with which Thomas Matthew Crooks the 20-year-old who shot Donald Trump – wounding him in the ear, killing one person and then being shot down by police – was able to get close to the former president during a rally in Pennsylvania. This is the doubt expressed by the prosecutor of Butler County, where the events occurred.
“Frankly, I’m surprised that he was able to get up on that roof and shoot,” the prosecutor, Richard Goldinger, told MSNBC. “I know we had law enforcement members in this building, so it’s even more surprising that he was able to get up there,” he said, indicating that it was a glass factory.
Security services reported that the sniper fired from an elevated position outside the perimeter of the meeting, about 150 meters away, before being shot. A video published by the American site TMZ shows the shooter lying on his stomach, on the roof of a building and holding a rifle. “I hope the investigation will establish how this happened, but yes, the most amazing thing to me is that while we have a former president on site, someone can come within about 140 meters, get on a roof and shoot,” the prosecutor insisted.
The US federal police, the FBI, acknowledged that it is “surprising” that Crooks was able to shoot multiple times before being “neutralized.” According to what was declared anonymously by the police to the Associated Press, in the home of the suspect involved in the shooting that took place yesterday during Donald Trump’s rally were found materials for making bombs.
The Secret Service in the storm
Il Secret Servicein charge of protecting top political figures in the United States, denied that he refused additional security for Donald Trump. “There is a false claim that a member of the former president’s team asked for additional security and that it was refused. This is absolutely not true. In fact, we added security as part of the increased pace of campaign travel,” Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi told X.
According to a senior law enforcement official, quoted by CNN, the shooter was spotted outside the event. Local law enforcement thought he was acting suspiciously near metal detectors.
According to the source, the authorities announced on the radio that they would keep an eye on him and that the information would also be passed on to the secret services. Later, some people alerted the police who were at a site outside the event site, saying they had seen an armed man on the roof.
The spectator killed was in the line of fire
The spectator who was fatally shot in the attack was in the line of fire, an eyewitness told NBC News. The man, who identified himself only as Joseph, said he was sitting in the stands to the far left of the podium when he heard “multiple shots” ring out, which appeared to come from behind the bleachers, and saw a man a few feet away fall after being shot in the head.
At that point chaos broke out.. The shots appeared to have come from behind the stands and the man had been hit in the back of the head, Joseph added, noting that the victim appeared to have been “in the path of the gunfire between whoever was shooting and the president,” “in the crossfire.” Seven shots were counted by the witness, who said he helped carry the man’s body to a nearby tent, along with his family members who were in the stands with him and were “hysterical,” unable to understand what was happening.