In the aftermath of the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump at a campaign event in Butler, PA, on July 13, more questions remain than answers. This is the latest on the Trump rally shooting – just the facts and nothing else.
The Victims
The former president left the rally with a bullet wound to the right ear. He was treated and later released and is, to quote his campaign spokesperson, “fine.” Trump considered postponing his trip to Milwaukee for the Republican National Convention but decided not to, arguing that he “cannot allow a ‘shooter,’ or potential assassin, to force change to scheduling, or anything else.” He arrived in the city just before 7 p.m. Sunday evening and is reportedly rewriting his speech to focus on uniting as a nation.
The two injured rally attendees have been identified as David Dutch of New Kensington, PA, aged 57, and 74-year-old James Copenhaver of Moon Township, PA. Both had been listed as in critical condition initially, but each have since been upgraded to stable condition.
The man killed by the shooter was identified as Corey Comperatore, age 50, of Sarver, PA. The volunteer firefighter and father of two girls reportedly dove on top of his wife and daughters to shield them from the gunfire when he was shot. Comperatore put himself between his family and the danger, and while it cost him his life, his wife and daughters were safe.
A GoFundMe campaign, verified by the platform, has so far raised more than $3 million – more than tripling the $1 million goal. “President Donald Trump has authorized this account as a place for donations to the supporters and families wounded or killed in today’s brutal and horrific assassination attempt,” reads the campaign description. “All donations will be directed to these proud Americans as they grieve and recover. May God bless and unite our nation.” So far, more than 47,000 people have donated.
The Shooter
Special Agent in Charge Kevin Rojek of the Pittsburgh FBI office gave reporters an update on the investigation Sunday. “We’re looking into his background, his day-to-day activities, any writings and social media posts that might help us identify what led to this shooting,” Rojek said. “And we have not seen anything threatening.” Thus far, investigators have not uncovered any ideology or history of mental illness that might have motivated 20-year-old local Thomas Matthew Crooks to turn assassin. His family, though, is reportedly cooperating with law enforcement.
The rifle the young shooter used belonged to his father. It is an AR-style 5.56 caliber rifle bought legally back in 2013. Crooks’ gun and phone have been handed over to the FBI to be examined in the lab at Quantico, VA.
Rojek also confirmed that there was a suspicious device found in the suspect’s car, and bomb-making materials were reportedly found in both the car and the deceased suspect’s home.
State records show that he was a registered Republican, and FEC records show a donor listed as Thomas Crooks with his street address gave $15 to Progressive Turnout Project on Inauguration Day in January 2021. Progressive Turnout Project is a PAC aligned with the Democratic Party that has labeled Trump a “threat to democracy” as recently as hours prior to the shooting. After the incident, however, a spokesperson for the PAC clarified: “While we vehemently disagree with Donald Trump, we believe our differences must be settled with ballots – not bullets.”
“We unequivocally condemn political violence in all of its forms, and we denounce anyone who chooses violence over peaceful political action,” the spokesperson continued.
Crooks was a member of a local shooting club with a 200-yard indoor range. He had also reportedly attempted to join his school’s shooting club when he was in high school, but he was rejected. According to former classmates who spoke to reporters on the topic, Crooks was such a bad shot that they asked him not to return out of fear that he might accidentally shoot someone else at the range.
Crooks had been working as a dietary aide at the Bethel Park Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. His employer reported that Crooks “performed his job without concern and his background check was clean.”
The Security
Not long after the incident, footage and media reports showed multiple rallygoers who said they saw Crooks crawling along the roof with a rifle and that they had attempted to inform law enforcement and the Secret Service minutes before the shooting began. More recent reports show that the rooftop from which Crooks fired was about 148 yards ( a little over 400 feet) from the stage where former President Trump stood.
The effective range – that’s the distance at which an average shooter can hit a human-sized target at least 50% of the time – of a rifle like Crooks’ is usually cited as somewhere between 400 and 600 yards, putting the former president well within the effective deadly range of that weapon even in the hands of just a mediocre shooter.
(Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Questions abound as to why that rooftop was left unsecured – or, for that matter, why police and Secret Service agents were slow to react once bystanders began pointing the shooter out. To make matters worse, NBC reported Sunday that two sources “familiar with the agency’s operations” claimed the Secret Service had flagged that building as a security concern well before the event.
Secret Service spokesman Anthony Gugliemi explained that the building fell outside the event’s security perimeter and that the Secret Service had designated that particular rooftop as being under the jurisdiction of local law enforcement. Butler County District Attorney Richard Goldinger, however, said that the Secret Service was in charge of security outside the venue.
“They had meetings in the week prior. The Secret Service ran the show. They were the ones who designated who did what,” Goldinger said. “In the command hierarchy, they were top, they were No. 1.” He went on to say that, in his understanding of the situation, the building fell under the jurisdiction of the Secret Service.
How this breakdown in security occurred and who – if anyone – is to blame for it will be the topic of investigations by both the FBI and Congress. Other questions, like what motivated young Mr. Crooks to open fire at the Trump rally, might never be answered.
