— AS Secret Service Gun-down Attempted Assassin
IPNEWS: Controversial Republican Party front-runner and former United States President Donald Trump has survived an assassination attempt in the U.S. State of Pennsylvania.
During his speech, the former President of the United States abruptly clutched his ear and attempted to take cover while the sound of gunfire filled the air. A person who was present at the scene has now reported seeing a young man crawling toward a building, which was a manufacturing unit about 130 yards from the rally, armed with a long rifle. This individual, who was part of a party close by, chose to approach the scene to listen to Trump’s speech when they spotted the gunman.
“We noticed a guy bear crawling up the roof of the building beside us, probably 50 feet away,” the man told BBC. So we’re pointing at the guy crawling up the roof…he had a rifle; we could clearly see him with a rifle.”
The U.S. Secret Service The FBI early Sunday identified the shooter as Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania.
is investigating how a gunman armed with an AR-style rifle was able to get close enough to shoot and injurie former President Donald Trump at the rally Saturday in Pennsylvania, a monumental failure of one the agency’s core duties.
The gunman, who was killed by Secret Service personnel, fired multiple shots at the stage from an “elevated position outside of the rally venue,” the agency said.
In the wake of this attempted assassination, President Joe Biden said Saturday that “everybody must condemn” the suspected assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump.
Addressing the nation about two hours after the shooting, Biden said he was relieved that Trump is reportedly “doing well.” He said he had been unable to reach Trump before his remarks, but the White House said he did speak to Trump several hours later.
“We cannot allow this to be happening,” Biden said. “The idea that there’s violence in America like this is just unheard of.”
Biden, speaking without a teleprompter, said he was waiting for additional information before formally calling the attack an attempted assassination on the former president.
“I have an opinion, but I don’t have any facts,” he told reporters, pledging to provide updates as he learns more.
An Associated Press analysis of more than a dozen videos and photos taken at the Trump rally, as well as satellite imagery of the site, shows the shooter was able to get astonishingly close to the stage where the former president was speaking. A video posted to social media and geolocated by the AP shows the body of a man wearing gray camouflage lying motionless on the roof of a manufacturing plant just north of the Butler Farm Show grounds, where Trump’s rally was held
The roof was less than 150 meters (yards) from where Trump was speaking, a distance from which a decent marksman could reasonably hit a human-sized target. For reference, 150 meters is a distance at which U.S. Army recruits must hit a scaled human-sized silhouette to qualify with the M16 assault rifle in basic training. The AR-15, like the shooter at the Trump rally had, is the semi-automatic civilian version of the military M16.
The Secret Service didn’t have anybody at a late-night news conference where FBI and Pennsylvania State Police officials briefed reporters on the shooting investigation. FBI Special Agent in Charge Kevin Rojek said it was “surprising” that the gunman was able to fire at the stage before he was killed.
Members of the Secret Service’s counter sniper team and counter assault team were at the rally, according to two law enforcement officials. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss details of the investigation.
The heavily armed counter assault team, whose Secret Service code name is “Hawkeye,” is responsible for eliminating threats so that other agents can shield and take away the person they are protecting. The counter sniper team, known by the code name “Hercules,” uses long-range binoculars and is equipped with sniper rifles to deal with long-range threats.
U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas said his department and the Secret Service are working with law enforcement to investigate the shooting. Maintaining the security of presidential candidates and their campaign events is one of the department’s “most vital priorities,” he said.
“We condemn this violence in the strongest possible terms and commend the Secret Service for their swift action today,” Mayorkas said. “We are engaged with President Biden, former President Trump and their campaigns, and are taking every possible measure to ensure their safety and security.“
Calls for an investigation came from all sides.
James Comer, a Kentucky Republican who is the House Oversight Committee chairman, said he contacted the Secret Service for a briefing and called on Director Kimberly Cheatle to appear for a hearing. Comer said his committee will send a formal invitation soon.
“Political violence in all forms is unamerican and unacceptable. There are many questions and Americans demand answers,” Comer said in a statement.
U.S. Rep. Ritchie Torres, a New York Democrat, called for investigating “security failures” at the rally.
“The federal government must constantly learn from security failures in order to avoid repeating them, especially when those failures have implications for the nation,” Torres said.
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, posted on X that he and his staff are in contact with security planning coordinators ahead of the Republican National Convention set to begin Monday in Milwaukee. “We cannot be a country that accepts political violence of any kind — that is not who we are as Americans,” Evers said.
The FBI said it will lead the investigation into the shooting, working with the Secret Service and local and state law enforcement.
Attorney General Merrick Garland said the Justice Department “will bring every available resource to bear to this investigation.”
“My heart is with the former President, those injured, and the family of the spectator killed in this horrific attack,” Garland said in a statement. “We will not tolerate violence of any kind, and violence like this is an attack on our democracy.”
Report coming in says Elon Musk earlier this week called for Secret Service leadership to step down after Trump’s attack. Witness reports warning about gunman before firing incident.
A witness claims that Trump’s security team received a warning about a gunman just minutes before the firing incident took place. In an interview with the BBC, a witness who was present during the attack on Trump recounted his attempts to alert local police and the Secret Service after noticing a suspicious individual on a nearby rooftop. He claimed, the gunman remained positioned for some time and managed to fire five shots before the Secret Service neutralized him.
