The day after the attempted assasination of former President Donald Trump, U.S. Secret Service officials were investigating how a gunman armed with an AR-style rifle was able to get close enough to the GOP presidential candiate in Pennsylvania, in a devastating failure of one of the agency’s core duties.
Corey Comperatore, 50, a volunteer firefighter who attended Trump’s rally, was killed as he jumped on his family members to shield them from the gunfire. At least two other rally attendees were injured.
Less than 24 hours after the attempt on this life, Trump arrived in Milwaukee for the Republican National Convention, posting on his Truth Social site that he cannot “allow a ‘shooter,’ or potential assassin, to force change to scheduling, or anything else.”
The former president also wrote, “Our love goes out to the other victims and their families” and he said he’s praying “for the recovery of those who were wounded, and hold in our hearts the memory of the citizen who was so horribly killed.”
“In this moment, it is more important than ever that we stand United, and show our True Character as Americans, remaining Strong and Determined, and not allowing Evil to Win,” he posted.
President Joe Biden, in a prime-time national address the day after the shooting, said political passions can run high but “we must never descend into violence.”
“We debate and disagree, we compare and contrast ... but in America we resolve our differences at the ballot box,” Biden said in his address. “Politics must never be a literal battlefield. God forbid a killing field.”
In earlier remarks on Sunday, Biden called for the country to “unite as one nation” and a “thorough and swift” review. He asked the public not to “make assumptions” about the shooter’s motives or affiliations.
The FBI on Sunday identified the shooter as Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania.
The gunman, who officials said was killed by Secret Service personnel, from an “elevated position outside of the rally venue,” the agency said. The FBI said they believe shooter acted alone. They have not determined a motive.
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 gunman’s body lying motionless on the roof of a manufacturing plant just north of the Butler Farm Show grounds, where Trump’s rally was held. A different image shows the shooter wearing a gray T-shirt with a black American flag on the right arm, with a bloody wound to his head.
In his earlier remarks on Sunday, Biden called the attack on Trump “not who we are as a nation.”
“It’s not American. And we cannot allow this to happen,” he said. “Unity is the most elusive goal of all, but nothing is more important than that right now.”
Calls for an investigation coming from all sides
Rep. Mark Green, a Tennessee Republican who chairs the House Committee on Homeland Security, sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Sunday raising questions about the shooting and demanding information about the former president’s Secret Service protection.
“The seriousness of this security failure and chilling moment in our nation’s history cannot be understated,” Green wrote.
The Secret Service did not have a speaker at a news conference Saturday night 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 counterassault 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 counterassault 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.
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.
