Authorities are piecing together the movements of the 20-year-old shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, in the days and hours leading up to the attack. The day before, he reportedly went to a shooting range he belonged to and practiced firing in what now appears to be practice for the attempted assassination. The rifle range at the club is 200 yards long, which is longer than the shots he took at Trump.
On the morning of the attack, he purchased a five-foot ladder from Home Depot and 50 rounds of ammunition from a gun store before heading about an hour from his home in Bethel Park to the rally in Butler. His Hyundai Sonata was later found parked outside with an improvised explosive device in the trunk that he had wired to a remote control detonator found on his body. Investigators believe that he used the new ladder to scale the building, possibly getting a boost from an air conditioning unit, placing him up on the roof where he took aim at Trump and opened fire.
Immediately after the incident, several rally attendees told the media that they saw the man on the roof and pointed him out to local law enforcement. One officer climbed onto the roof using the shoulders of another officer to hoist himself up, but when Crooks pointed his rifle at the officer, he quickly retreated and the gunman opened fire on Trump before being shot fatally by U.S. Secret Service gunmen.
Why didn't anyone stop the shooter?
Reports have also emerged that law enforcement officers spotted Crooks nearly half an hour before the shooting and considered him suspicious, taking his photo and requesting backup. He was seen looking at the building before disappearing and returning with a rangefinder.
He then reappeared once again with a backpack, and shortly thereafter, the shots were fired. Snipers were reportedly stationed inside the building on its second floor and observed him, but apparently nobody stepped in on time to stop a tragedy.
There could have been a much bigger tragedy
Although Trump certainly has more than his fair share of enemies and detractors, the idea that anyone in a position of power wouldn’t try their hardest to prevent this type of attack is extremely unsettling.
The shooter only managed to graze Trump’s ear, but he did kill a man in the crowd and injured two others. The man he shot was a former fire chief and father who died shielding his family from the gunfire.
Many more people could have been killed; if the shooter had a beef with Trump, it’s reasonable to assume he also had no regard for his supporters, and there were thousands of them at the event.
Considering Crooks had an explosive device and a detonator, it’s clear he intended to do a lot more damage, and it is completely unfathomable how no one stopped this dangerous person despite all the signs that something was about to go terribly wrong.
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