How could a suspiciously armed man climb onto the roof of a building 130 metres from where the former US president was speaking and manage to fire at least eight shots before being shot down?
That’s just one of the terrifying and damning questions left unanswered after the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, which is being described as a massive security failure.
New and terrifying video of TMZ captured the moment Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, lay down on the roof of a nearby building, in full view of horrified Trump supporters, and fired toward the stage.
The robbers killed former volunteer fire chief Corey Comperatore, who was sitting in the stands and died a hero protecting his family, and then punched Trump in the ear.
Law enforcement reportedly spotted him and then kept him under surveillance at the Trump rally site because they sensed something was amiss. But they then lost sight of him before the massacre took place.
Witnesses say they warned police about a man armed with an AR-style rifle climbing to the top of a building, but he was still able to open fire.
Why were the warnings ignored? Why did the Secret Service fail to fully protect a former president and presidential candidate just four months before the election?
A terrifying video captures the moment Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire on Donald Trump during his rally on Saturday night. He shot the former president in the ear and then killed a member of the crowd
The question also arises as to why the surrounding area was not fully inspected.
The Secret Service’s primary responsibility is to protect current and former presidents, a task at which it has been accused of failing spectacularly.
It is perhaps the worst security failure since President Ronald Reagan was shot and wounded in a Washington hotel in 1981.
They now face a torrent of questions over how the first assassination attempt in 43 years was allowed to happen.
Politicians, law enforcement and critics are demanding answers about how Crooks managed to get so close to a protest that was surrounded by so much security.
Leading Republicans and Democrats have demanded an urgent investigation.
Police stand over the body of Donald Trump gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks after he was shot and killed by Secret Service.
Witnesses say they alerted police to a man armed with an AR-style rifle crawling across a roof and lying face down, but was still able to open fire.
There are indications that routine checks would have eliminated all potential threats.
In a damning statement Saturday night, FBI Special Agent Kevin Rojek said it was “astonishing” that Crooks managed to fire so many shots.
There are also allegations that Trump’s team asked for more protection for the campaign, but was rebuffed.
The Secret Service has since denied those claims, but is still under immense scrutiny for what has been called an “absolute failure.”
And Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., became the first lawmaker to say that Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle “has to go.”
President Joe Biden, addressing Americans from the White House on Sunday, promised an “independent review” of what happened at the rally.
“I’m ordering an independent national security review into yesterday’s rally to assess exactly what happened, and we will share the results of that independent review with the American people as well,” Biden said.
Former Secret Service agent Joseph LaSorsa said there will be an “intensive review” and “massive restructuring” at the agency. “That can’t happen,” he said.
He told DailyMail.com he was lucky Trump turned his head at the last second so the bullet only hit his ear.
He said protections for former presidents need to be increased and that Trump will now have almost the same protections as President Joe Biden.
But there are questions about why a man who was in the crosshairs of so many did not have a sufficient level of enforcement around him.
It also explained why agency agents under fire may not have been able to see the gunman.
‘Remember that they are looking at 360 degrees and they are working with seconds. They are monitoring, maybe in that case it could have been 240 degrees.
‘They were looking at a lot of areas and it only took a few seconds for that individual to get there and fortunately he was a 20-year-old and not a top shooter.
“Luckily for all of us as a country, he was only 20 years old.”
He added: “If they hadn’t taken it out, I would have been able to continue filming.”
“The fact that there was a sniper team that took him out is quite fortuitous and very fortunate for the country, because this could have been a thousand times worse.”
Trump raises his fist beneath the American flag, blood on his face, moments after the shooting
Blood is seen coming out of Donald Trump’s ear, where he said he was shot
Steve Nottingham, a former SWAT commander in Long Beach, California, told NBC News the shooting was a “fundamental security failure.”
Jim Cavanaugh, a retired special agent in charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), was stunned that the shooter came so close.
Greg Smith, owner of Brenckle’s Farms & Greenhouses, told DailyMail.com he saw the would-be killer climb to the top of a building and was baffled by officers’ lack of action.
“I’m wondering, ‘Why is Trump still speaking on this stage right now? Why is he still up there speaking?'” she told DailyMail.com.
After the gunman opened fire, he saw the Secret Service “blow his head off,” the man said in a video captured by the BBC.
“I saw the Secret Service blow his head off,” he said, then ran to get his wife and three children and return to safety.
“At this point, as I think about it more and more, I feel like it’s just a massive security breach,” he told DailyMail.com.
“This isn’t a big place, there aren’t many buildings around here, why isn’t everything covered?”
He said he had seen a man climbing onto the roof of a building.
“I noticed there was a guy climbing on the roof of that building,” he continued, speaking to DailyMail.com. “And I thought, ‘That doesn’t look right.'”
He said the man definitely did not look like he was from the Secret Service, was wearing tan and gray clothing and was not in uniform.
Police officers were seen running around the building, apparently searching for someone.
‘I’m pointing at the roof and I say, ‘Hey, there’s a guy on the roof with a rifle.’
Officers then went up to the roof, where the gunman was located, and social media images appeared to show a man lying lifeless.
The witness, a Trump supporter, told the BBC how he had seen the shooter prepare to assassinate the former president.
Asked why there was no one at the water tower that overlooks the entire property, he replied, “I don’t like it, I don’t like what’s going on, I don’t like the way it feels, I really don’t like it.”
Other protesters also watched him on the roof for three or four minutes without police taking any action, he said.
An extraordinary photograph shows Donald Trump on the ground at the Butler Show Grounds in Pennsylvania on Saturday after he was injured in a shooting that left two people dead.
He said: ‘We noticed a guy crawling, you know, an army bear, climbing on the roof of the building 50 feet away from us.
“So we were standing there aiming at the guy climbing on the roof, he had a rifle, we could clearly see he had a rifle.”
The Secret Service has rejected claims that former President Donald Trump was denied additional protection ahead of the assassination attempt, as the agency faced mounting questions about the security lapse.
Secret Service spokesman Andrew Guglielmi has responded to “false” allegations from Republicans and members of the former president’s inner circle that requests for a larger security detail were rejected.
“There is a false claim that a member of the former President’s team requested additional security resources and that they were denied,” Guglielmi wrote on X on Sunday morning, responding to Trump supporters already making claims online.
“That is absolutely false. In fact, we added resources, technology and protective capabilities as part of the increased pace of campaign travel.”
House Republicans plan to bring Secret Service chief Kimberly Cheatle in for what is expected to be a heated questioning on July 22 as lawmakers demand answers.
“I have already reached out to the Secret Service to request a briefing and am also calling on Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle to appear at a hearing. The Oversight Committee will send a formal invitation soon,” said House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer of Kentucky.
The suspected shooter came within inches of killing the former president, who was wounded in the ear and rushed away from his speech in Pennsylvania by Secret Service agents.
