Law enforcement officials have acknowledged that it was “surprising” how the gunman was able to target former President Donald Trump with so many bullets before eventually being killed by Secret Service snipers. At an early 14th July press briefing, representatives of the Pennsylvania State Police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation deferred several security-related queries to the Secret Service which was conspicuously missing. FBI Special Agent Kevin Rojek responded, “It is surprising but, to get all the details of that will come out later in the investigation,” when asked if he was astonished by the number of shots the gunman managed to fire at the former president.
Rojek added, “The Secret Service really needs to answer that question,” emphasizing that the FBI was only there to assist Secret Service as they were in charge of protecting the area. Lt. Col. George Bivens of the Pennsylvania State Police made an effort to defend the Secret Service over the security breach that almost cost Donald Trump his life. He claimed, “In their defense, what I would want to say is it is incredibly difficult to have a venue open to the public and secure that against any possible threat against a determined attacker, that’s a huge lift to try and do it.”
However, not everybody agrees that not much could be done. Chairman of the House Oversight Committee James Comer declared that his committee will grill Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle about the serious security breach and launch an investigation into the incident that endangered former President Donald Trump. Around 130 yards from the stage at the Butler County Fair Grounds, a 20-year-old sniper named Thomas Matthew Crooks positioned himself atop a building with a clear view of the former president. According to authorities, while Donald Trump was speaking, Crooks opened fire striking President Trump’s ear, killing one rally attendee and gravely wounding another.
As soon as Donald Trump was hit, Secret personnel sprang into action, dragging a bleeding Donald Trump off stage. The snipers then eliminated the assailant, according to the police. During the early press briefing, the authorities refused to reveal the attacker’s identity. According to officials, the FBI has not yet determined the reason behind the attack. Kevin Rojek informed, “We do not currently have an identified motive and our investigators are working tirelessly to attempt to identify what that motive was.”
Additionally, officials stated that it was too soon to assess whether or not the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump was a “lone wolf” attack. Lt. Col. George Bivens declared, “Too early to say that. We have one shooter tentatively identified. We’re not stopping there. We’re following up on a lot of information, it will be some time until we can conclusively say (it was a single gunman).”