Donald Trump attack: Suspect pointed rifle at cop before firing, suggests report
NEW DELHI, JULY 15 : The 20-year-old man who tried to assassinate former US President Donald Trump first came to law enforcement’s attention at Saturday’s rally when spectators noticed him acting strangely outside the campaign event.
The tip sparked a frantic search, but officers were unable to find him before he managed to get on a roof, where he opened fire.
The gunman had his father’s AR-style rifle and was perched atop a nearby roof when some rallygoers pointed him out to local law enforcement, said two law enforcement officials, who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing criminal probe.
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A local law enforcement officer climbed to the roof and found the gunman, identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks, who pointed the rifle at the officer.
The officer then retreated down the ladder, and the gunman quickly fired toward Trump, the officials said.
That’s when US Secret Service gunmen shot him, the report suggested.
Questions abounded about how the gunman could have gotten so close in the first place.
Kevin Rojek, the agent in charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)’s Pittsburgh field office, said “it is surprising” that the gunman was able to open fire on the stage before the Secret Service killed him, AP reported.
Meanwhile, the shooting at Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania is being investigated as an attempted assassination of the former President and presumptive Republican nominee, law enforcement officials told AP.
In the wake of the shooting that killed one spectator, investigators are hunting for any clues about what may have driven Crooks, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, to carry out the shocking attack.
The FBI said they were investigating it as a potential act of domestic terrorism, but the absence of a clear ideological motive by the man shot dead by the Secret Service allowed conspiracy theories to flourish.
The FBI said it believes Crooks, who had bomb-making materials in the car he drove to the rally, acted alone.
Investigators have found no threatening comments on social media accounts or ideological positions that could help explain what led him to target Trump.
-The IndiaToday
