Why did a gunman approach presidential candidate Donald Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday and nearly kill him?
That's perhaps the biggest question now, two days after the assassination attempt that shocked the world and upended the 2024 presidential election.
Some experts have described the incident as a major security failure and questioned how the gunman could have climbed to the roof of a building a football field's worth of steps from Trump's stage and begun firing before being shot by a Secret Service agent. Some members of the crowd recognized the gunman and called police minutes before the shooting, according to video and witness accounts.
“There should not be that kind of direct stare at a former president,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told ABC News on Monday.
Other people were asking questions too.
“How could there have been people at that altitude that bystanders on the ground saw? How could the Secret Service not have noticed?” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) asked on NBC Sunday morning. “We have more questions than answers this morning,” said Johnson, who has called for a thorough investigation.
President Biden on Sunday announced an independent investigation into security at the venue.
Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle said Monday that the agency is cooperating with the investigation and trying to determine what happened.
“During the incident, Secret Service agents on the scene acted swiftly, with counter-sniper teams neutralizing the shooter and agents implementing protective measures to ensure the safety of former President Donald Trump,” she said in a statement.
“The Secret Service is working with all involved federal, state and local agencies to understand what happened, how it happened, and how we can prevent an incident like this from happening again. We understand the importance of the independent investigation announced yesterday by President Biden and will cooperate fully. We will also continue to work with the appropriate congressional committees on our oversight activities.”
Cheatle is already facing questions.
Roy Taylor, a law enforcement consultant with decades of experience working on security for political events, said securing high ground around a venue is key to ensuring the safety of those being protected, and he questioned why the Pennsylvania rooftop was left open.
“We need to either get everybody out of the building or get officers in the building,” he told The Times. “We need to secure the building. Obviously, it's easier to shoot somebody down than it is to fire a gun, because if you fire a gun, you have the advantage.”
The Secret Service said Trump's security had undergone “additional security enhancements” last month and that changes had been made after Saturday's assassination attempt “to ensure the continued protection of the President.” [Republican National] “We will reflect on the convention and the remainder of the campaign,” Cheatle said in a statement Monday.
Cheatle said he was confident in the Republican National Committee's security plans, which have been “reviewed and enhanced” in the wake of Saturday's shooting.
In an interview with the New York Post, Trump praised the Secret Service for their actions, saying they came at him like “linebackers” and carried him to safety.
“The police hit me so hard that my shoes came off. They're too tight,” he told the newspaper.
“They took him down with one shot between the eyes,” Trump said of the shooter. “They did a fantastic job. … It seems surreal to all of us.”
What is known about the shooter's location?
The suspect, Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, fired an AR-style rifle from the roof of a building overlooking the rally.
It's unclear how long he was on the roof.
Video shows an onlooker pointing for several minutes at an unassuming roof just outside the venue where Trump was speaking in Butler, Pennsylvania, and in a video shared on social media, an attendee can be heard yelling, “He's got a gun.”
Greg Smith told the BBC he saw the gunman crawling on a nearby roof before shots rang out, and said he and others tried to alert the police and Secret Service to the attack.
“We're pointing to the guy,” Smith said. “He had a rifle. We clearly saw him having a rifle.”
Smith suspects officers may not have been able to see the man because of the slope of the roof on which he was positioned.
Local police officers spotted Crooks before he opened fire but were unable to engage him, Butler County Sheriff Michael T. Throop told CNN. Throop said officers were searching the area after receiving a report of a suspicious person outside the rally's perimeter. They found someone on a roof and one officer lifted another officer and helped him peer over the edge of the roof.
Crooks turned, saw the officer and pointed his gun at him, Throop said, and the officer dropped his weapon to take cover and protect his own life, the sheriff said.
A law enforcement source familiar with the investigation told The Times that the building had been identified as a vulnerable location. Security responsibilities are divided in such situations, with local authorities often taking the lead, the people said. Details of the rally's planning were unclear.
Shooting incident
Crooks fired his shot from about 430 feet from the stage where Trump was speaking. Steve Gordon, a former Los Angeles Police Department Special Weapons Team officer and sniper, said that with some training and practice, it wouldn't be difficult to shoot someone with an AR-type rifle.
“This type of rifle is standard issue with police and military forces and it is not particularly difficult to fire with this weapons system,” Gordon said.
Without even looking at the Pennsylvania venue, Gordon said, “It would be nearly impossible, if not completely impossible, to cover every window, roof, tree, bush and person.”
“If they'd seen him a few seconds earlier, they probably could have shot him right away, given the circumstances,” he said, “but from what I've seen so far, I think the countersniper team did a great job.”
The Associated Press, which was at the scene, reported what happened next:
As the first note rang, Trump said “Ahh,” put his hand to his right ear and looked at it before quickly crouching behind the podium, as screams rang out from the crowd and people in the stands behind him crouched as well.
As agents rushed onto the stage, someone could be heard near a microphone saying, “Down, down, down, down, down!” Agents then threw themselves over the former president, shielding him with their bodies, while other agents took positions onstage to search for threats.
Then, someone can be heard saying “The shooter is down” several times, followed by someone asking “Can we move?” and “Is it safe?” and then someone giving the order “Let's move.”
In the video, Trump can be heard saying “Bring me your shoes” at least twice, and a different voice can be heard saying “It's all right, sir.”
Trump was seen standing up a few minutes later and reaching his right hand over his blood-stained face before pumping his fist in the air and appearing to say the word “fight” twice, prompting loud cheers and chants of “USA, USA, USA.”
Minutes later, Trump's motorcade left the venue, and video shows him turning to face the crowd and raising his fist just before being loaded into his car.
Crooks missed Trump, but former firefighter Corey Comperatore was shot while sitting in the stands with his family, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said.
In a Facebook post, Ms Comperatore's sister, Dawn Comperatore Schafer, called her husband a “hero who protected his daughters” as gunfire rang out, and wrote that Ms Comperatore had just turned 50 and “still had so much more to experience in life.”
Cheatle on Monday offered condolences to Comperatore's family and friends, as well as others injured “in this senseless act of violence.”
Growing doubts
One big question is whether the Secret Service or local police secured nearby buildings before Trump began his speech — the building where the shooter was found was outside the rally's perimeter, but experts say authorities would normally be there.
“Frankly, I don't know how he got there,” Butler County District Attorney Richard A. Goldinger told CNN. “I think we're going to have to find out how he got there.”
Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi told The Washington Post that the agency relies on local police for security assistance, but it was unclear who was in charge of the building.
FBI Special Agent in Charge Kevin Rojek of Pittsburgh said the gun used was an AR-style .556 rifle and that authorities believe it was legally purchased by Crooks' father. Authorities said it was unclear how the teen obtained the weapon.
Rojek said investigators found a “suspicious device” while searching the shooter's vehicle, but it was later determined to be safe by a bomb squad. He said authorities were investigating the shooting as an assassination attempt and also as a “potential act of domestic terrorism.”
Calls for security scrutiny have come from both Republicans and Democrats.
“Those responsible for designing, approving and implementing this clearly inadequate national security plan must testify before Congress and be held accountable,” Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) said in a statement.
