He attack on Donald Trump Saturday afternoon was one of the large rallies the former president usually holds for his followers in small towns across the country. The meeting this time was in Butler, in northwestern Pennsylvania, an hour north of Pittsburgh. The Trump campaign chose the site of an agricultural fair for the campaign event.
The suspect in the minor wounding of Trump took the life of a rally attendee and left two other people in critical condition. The attacker did a 20 year old young man named Thomas Matthew Crookswith no criminal record, who lived in Bethel Park, about 50 miles by car from the scene. He was a registered Republican voter, a free gesture that can easily be filled out online, so it’s unclear what it means that he was. His motivations are unknown at this point. Secret Service agents killed him immediately.
Gunmen fired shots while stationed on the roof of an industrial building outside the security complex, about 150 meters from where the former president was addressing thousands of his followers, among whom panic broke out.
From the examination of the videos of the event, we can conclude that Crooks had time to fire eight shots, eight sharp sounds that alerted those present at the rally and Trump himself, who had started speaking about seven minutes earlier.
Knowing what is happening outside means understanding what will happen inside, don't miss anything.
In the following video, you can see how Trump suddenly puts his hand to his ear, which starts to bleed, and quickly falls to the ground. The agents responsible for his protection rush to cover the former president with their bodies, as recommended by security protocol. Everything happens very quickly and it seems that the people behind him remain surprisingly calm. There is no stampede, perhaps because they already knew that the attacker was dead.
It cannot be said with certainty that it was a bullet that caused the small wound to Trump's ear. If so, the former president was exceptionally close to being shot in the head.
It is possible to confirm that at least one of the projectiles passed a few inches behind Trump's spot. Or at least that's what a photographer's photo shows The New York Times capturing the moment one of the bullets flies past the Republican candidate's head.
Crooks was using an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle that his father had purchased a few months earlier, according to initial investigations. He was also carrying explosives in the trunk of his car, and had more in his home. The AR-15 is a weapon patented in the 1950s for military use. It is the weapon most often used in the mass shootings that continue to occur in the United States.
The assassination left a trail of questions about the actions of the agents responsible for security at the event. These types of gatherings are usually heavily armored, with metal detectors and snipers stationed on the rooftops of the area, controlling a vast perimeter.
How then could they have missed the fact that a man armed with a rifle had managed to climb to the roof of one of the few buildings in a predominantly rural area? Some witnesses told the media that they tried for minutes to warn the officers of the suspect's presence, but that they were too slow to react.
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