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(NewsNation) – On Sunday morning, the FBI said a 20-year-old man named Thomas Matthew Crooks was the target of an assassination attempt at a rally for President Donald Trump. The Secret Service shot and killed Crooks seconds later.
The attack is the most serious attempt to assassinate a president or a presidential candidate since Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981.
The former president is “doing well,” according to Trump campaign officials.
Crooks is from Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, about 200 miles east of where the rally took place in Butler, Pennsylvania.
According to state records, he is a registered Republican, but The Associated Press reports that he donated $15 to a progressive PAC On the day of President Joe Biden’s inauguration.
The secret service said that one protester was killed and two were seriously injured. According to the agency, Crooks fired “from an elevated position outside the rally site.” According to the police, all three victims are adult men.
The FBI said they have no reason to believe there is a threat.
Asked if the dead suspect acted alone, Pennsylvania State Police Lt. Col. Bivens said, “It will be some time before we can definitively say or answer that question.”
“We’re not taking it for granted that this was a lone wolf attack,” Bivens said.
Two officials, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss the investigation, said Crooks was not in attendance.
Law enforcement officers recovered an AR-type rifle at the scene, according to a person involved in the case. The person was not authorized to discuss details of the investigation.
Video posted on social media and geolocation by the AP showed the body of a man wearing gray camouflage lying motionless on the roof of a building at AGR International Inc., a manufacturing plant north of the Butler Farm Showgrounds where the Trump rally was held. .
The roof where the man was lying was less than 150 meters (164 yards) from where Trump was speaking, from which a decent shooter could reasonably hit a human-sized target. For reference, 150 meters is the distance at which US Army recruits must shoot a scaled human-sized silhouette to qualify for the M-16 rifle.
Eyewitness accounts of the shooter
Witnesses told media outlets that they saw hoodlums on a roof outside the rally.
Easton Smith, who was outside the security perimeter at the rally, said he saw a man climb onto the roof of a nearby building.
“I didn’t know what he was doing, he was trying to alert the cops and the police that the guy was climbing on the roof,” Smith said. “Then we saw that he had a rifle slung over his shoulder. After that, several shots rang out.”
A witness named Greg Smith told BBC News Scammers were climbing on top of a building outside the event. According to him, he pointed out the armed person to the police.
“I’m thinking to myself, ‘Why is Trump still talking, why hasn’t he been taken off the stage?’… The next thing you know, five gunshots ring out.”
Smith was listening from outside the rally and said he saw the attacker five minutes after Trump’s speech.
“We spotted a male bear climbing on the roof of the building next to us, 50 feet away,” he said. “He had a gun, we could clearly see the gun.
“We point at him, the police are running there on the ground, we’re like, ‘Hey man, there’s a guy on the roof with a gun’ … and the police didn’t know what was going on. .”
Smith said he tried to alert authorities for three to four minutes, but thought they likely couldn’t see the gunman because of the slope of the roof.
“Why isn’t the Secret Service here on all these rooftops?” he asked. “It’s not a big place. (It is a) security failure, 100% security failure.”
He said he later saw the agents shoot the gunman: “They went up on the roof, they had their guns pointed at him, they made sure he was dead. He was dead and that was it. “
Two firefighters from nearby Steubenville, Ohio, who were at the rally, told the AP that they helped people who appeared to be injured and heard bullets ringing over broadcast speakers.
“Bullets ricocheted around the tribune, hit one of the loudspeakers, and then chaos erupted. We hit the ground and the police gathered in the stands,” said Chris Takacs.
“After we heard the gunshot, then the hydraulic line was splattering around, you could see the hydraulic fluid coming out. And then the speaker tower started to fall,” said Dave Sullivan. “Then we heard another shot that you could hear, you knew something was up, it was bullets. It was not a firearm.
Law enforcement response
Trump checked into Butler Medical Center in Pennsylvania after the shooting. Trump came to the podium and was quickly removed by the Secret Service. In a post on Truth Social, Trump said he felt a bullet hit his ear during the shooting.
He was later released from the hospital.
The incident is currently under investigation and “the Secret Service has notified the FBI,” said Anthony Guglielli, the Secret Service’s chief of communications.
The FBI said it has assumed the role of lead federal law enforcement agency in the investigation.
Police soon told the remaining crowd to leave, and US Secret Service agents told reporters to “get out now. It is a lively crime scene. “
The Associated Press contributed to this report.