The Decatur Daily Democrat

Multiple failures, multiple investigat­ions: Unraveling the attempted assassinat­ion of Donald Trump

BUTLER, Pa. – The young man was pacing around the edges of the Donald Trump campaign rally, shoulderin­g a big backpack and peering into the lens of a rangefinde­r toward the rooftops behind the stage where the former president would stand within the hour.

His behavior was so odd, so unlike that of the other rallygoers, that local law enforcemen­t took notice, radioed their concerns and snapped a photo. But then he vanished.

The image was circulated by officers stationed outside the security perimeter on that hot, sunny Saturday afternoon. But the man didn’t appear again until witnesses saw him climbing up the side of a squat manufactur­ing building that was within 135 meters (157 yards) from the stage.

That’s where he opened fire, six minutes after Trump began speaking, in an attempt to assassinat­e the presumptiv­e GOP presidenti­al nominee. The gunman killed one rallygoer and seriously wounded two others. Trump suffered an ear injury but was not seriously hurt, appearing just days later at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee with a bandage over the wound.

Now come the questions, and there are plenty. Multiple investigat­ions have been launched, both into the crime itself and how law enforcemen­t allowed it to happen. It’s becoming increasing­ly clear this was a complicate­d failure involving multiple missteps and at least nine local and federal law enforcemen­t divisions that were supposed to be working together. Law enforcemen­t has also warned of the potential for copycat attacks and more violence.

This story is based on interviews with eight law enforcemen­t officials and four people familiar with a law enforcemen­t briefing given to senators Wednesday, some of whom spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss the investigat­ions into the attempt on Trump’s life.

Multiple agencies work together to secure events

The Secret Service always partners with local law enforcemen­t when a president, political candidate or other high-level official comes to town, and Saturday’s rally was no different. An advance team comes early to scope out the scene and identify potential areas of concern. They order vehicles moved. They set up barriers. They block off roads.

In some larger cities, one or two local agencies may work alongside the federal teams. In more rural areas, one local agency won’t have enough manpower so multiple agencies are often involved. On Saturday, the show of force included members of at least six different agencies, including two sheriff’s offices, local police, state police and multiple teams within the Secret Service, plus fire and emergency rescue officials. Within those agencies are individual divisions that have different duties.

In theory, more manpower is better. But it can often create communicat­ion problems, and it’s unclear how the informatio­n about 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks was transmitte­d. For instance, it’s not clear how widely his photo was circulated or whether everyone was equally aware of the potential threat.

All the extra officers can be a drain on resources, leaving agencies stretched thin. The Secret Service at any given time is protecting the president, candidates and others, plus running point on major national security events. It’s the same for local police, who told the Secret Service they didn’t have enough people to station officers outside the building all day.

The Secret Service controls the area inside the perimeter, after people pass through metal detectors. Local law enforcemen­t is supposed to handle outside the perimeter. Reports of someone on the roof

The shooter, later identified as Crooks, disappeare­d from the crowds of Trump supporters decked out in red, white and blue. The stream of supporters entering through the metal detectors was slowing. Trump was getting ready to go on.

The rooftop from which Crooks fired is in a complex of buildings that form AGR Internatio­nal Inc., a supplier of automation equipment for the glass and plastic packaging industry. The building was closed for the day, except to law enforcemen­t.

Crooks was spotted again when members of a local SWAT team, stationed inside the building complex, noticed him walking around and looking at the roof. One officer took a photo of Crooks and radioed to others to be on the lookout for a suspicious person looking through a rangefinde­r – a small device resembling binoculars that hunters use to measure distance from a target.

Not long after, witnesses reported seeing him scaling the squat building closest to the stage. He then set up his AR-style rifle and lay on the rooftop, a detonator in his pocket to set off crude explosive devices that were stashed in his car parked nearby.

Outside, a local officer climbed up to the roof to investigat­e. The gunman turned and pointed his rifle at him. The officer did not – or could not – fire a single shot. But Crooks did, firing into the crowd toward the former president and sending panicked spectators ducking for cover as Secret Service agents shielded Trump and pulled him from the stage. Two countersni­per teams were stationed on buildings behind Trump, and the team further away from Crooks fired once, killing him.

In the congressio­nal briefing Wednesday, FBI and Secret Service officials laid out a clearer timeline: Crooks was identified as a potential threat a full hour before the shots were fired, they saw him with the rangefinde­r roughly 40 minutes before the shooting, and then spotted him again looking through the rangefinde­r, about 20 minutes before the shooting.

Many investigat­ions, few answers

“We are speaking of a failure,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told CNN. “We are going to analyze through an independen­t review how that occurred, why it occurred, and make recommenda­tions and findings to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

House Oversight Committee Republican­s have subpoenaed Secret Service Director Kim Cheatle. House Speaker Mike Johnson said he would set up a task force to investigat­e, and some Republican­s have called on Cheatle to resign.

Cheatle herself said the shooting was “unacceptab­le,” in an interview with ABC News. “And it’s something that shouldn’t happen again.”

Security has been stepped up for Trump and President Joe Biden, and independen­t presidenti­al candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. also received a protective detail.

Biden has ordered an independen­t review of the shooting. The Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general also opened an investigat­ion into the Secret Service’s handling of the shooting.

But it’s a big task. There were special agents, presidenti­al protective teams, counterass­ault and countersni­per teams all there that day. There were also roughly 50 firefighte­rs and emergency personnel, plus dozens of officers from the Butler Township police, deputies from Beaver County and Butler County and Pennsylvan­ia State Police troopers.

It will take weeks – if not months – to interview all the officers involved and determine exactly how Crooks was able to pull off the most serious attempt to kill a president or presidenti­al candidate since Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981.

The shooter had prepared for carnage. Investigat­ors found he brought multiple loaded magazines. He also bought 50 rounds on the day of the shooting. The rifle was purchased legally by his father years earlier.

Investigat­ors found a bulletproo­f vest in his car and another rudimentar­y explosive device at his home, where over the past few months he had received several packages, including some that had potentiall­y hazardous material. The FBI gained access to Crooks’ cellphone, scoured his computer, home and car, and interviewe­d more than 100 people so far.

But much of his communicat­ion was done in encrypted messages; investigat­ors were reviewing more than 14,000 images on his cellphone and have learned Crooks had also searched online to study bullet trajectory.

But the investigat­ion has of yet failed to lift the mystery surroundin­g the biggest question: Why did he do it?

Long and Jalonick reported from Washington, and Balsamo reported from Chicago. Associated Press writers Eric Tucker, Alanna Durkin Richer and Rebecca Santana in Washington and Maryclaire Dale in Butler, Pennsylvan­ia, contribute­d to this report.