Secret Service agents shot and killed Thomas Matthew Crooks while he was on a rooftop with a rifle outside the rally site in Butler, Pennsylvania, according to the FBI.
The FBI has pointed out Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20 years old and resident of Bethel Park (Pennsylvania), like the man they believe shot the former president of the United States Donald Trump. The town is about an hour’s drive from the rally Trump was addressing.
Next, Secret Service agents shot Crooks to death when he was lying on the roof of a building located outside the rally site, at an agricultural fair in Butler, Pennsylvania, according to the agency.
An attendee also died and two spectators were seriously injured., according to authorities. All were identified as men.
LosAmerican media outlets claim that Crooks was registered as a republican in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, according to county election records.
But US federal campaign finance records also show that Crooks donated about 14 euros to the Progressive Turnout Projecta liberal group that encourages Americans to vote.
According to the newspaper ‘USA Today’, he has no criminal record in Pennsylvania. A video posted on social media and geolocated by AP shows the body of a person dressed in gray camouflage lying motionless on the roof of a building at AGR International Inc, a manufacturing plant located just north of the Butler Farm Show venue, where Trump’s rally was held.
Authorities said members of the counterassault team US Secret Service killed shooter. The heavily armed tactical team travels everywhere with the president and major party candidates and is intended to deal with any active threat while other officers focus on safeguarding and evacuating the person at the center of protection.
Law enforcement recovered an AR-style rifle in the place of the eventsaccording to a third person familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing investigation.
An AP analysis of more than a dozen videos and photos from the scene of Trump’s rally, as well as satellite images of the site, shows that The shooter was able to get surprisingly close to the stage where the former president was speaking.
The roof where the person lay was less than 140 meters from where Trump was speaking, a distance from which a decent marksman could reasonably hit a human-sized target. For reference, 150 meters is the distance at which US Army recruits must hit a scaled human-sized silhouette to qualify with the M-16 rifle. El AR-15like the one the shooter at the Trump rally had, is the semi-automatic civilian version of the military M-16.
Asked at the news conference whether law enforcement didn’t know the shooter was on the roof until he started shooting, Kevin Rojek, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Pittsburgh field office, responded, “That’s our evaluation at this time.”
“It’s surprising” that the gunman could open fire on the stage before the Secret Service killed him, he added
The attack was the most serious attempt to assassinate a president or presidential candidate since Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981. A less than four months before the presidential electionsbrought renewed attention to political violence in a deeply polarized United States.
