1. How are the victims?
Donald Trump no longer has a striking white bandage over his ear, but he still has two overlapping Band-Aids. According to his former personal physician at the White House, current House member Ronny Jackson had a two-centimeter wound on his ear that is now healing well. At campaign rallies he proudly says that he “took a bullet for democracy.”
Former firefighter Cory Comparatore (50) was buried last Friday.
David Dutch (57) and James Copenhaver (57) remain seriously injured in the hospital and their condition is stable. Like Comparatore, they sat on a stand from which the shooter had to shoot to hit Trump.
2. What do we know now about the perpetrator?
Thomas Matthew (Tom) Crooks was a 20-year-old white man. In high school he kept to himself and was bullied for his appearance. He had just finished a two-year engineering course and, according to a friend, was looking forward to continuing his studies, for which he had received a scholarship, because he had an aptitude for scientific subjects.
He was a member of a shooting club, like his father. He owned more than a dozen firearms, including the AR-15 rifle his son used in the attack.
His parents and friends had no idea that he held extreme political views or suffered from psychological problems – two possible explanations for his action. No concrete motive has been found on Crooks’ social media accounts, computer or phone.
She searched the Internet for information about depression and about Ethan Crumbley (15), who shot and killed four students at his school in Michigan in 2021. Something for which not only Crumbley, but also his parents were convicted.
In addition to Donald Trump’s rally, the Crooks had also been looking up locations where President Joe Biden would campaign. And they Googled the distance Lee Harvey Oswald traveled with the bullets he used to kill President John F. Kennedy in 1963.
3. How did Crooks proceed with his attack?
The day before the attack, Crooks went to practice at the shooting range. That same day, he bought a ladder. He drove it in his car, which he parked at the festival site in Butler, Pennsylvania, where Trump was scheduled to speak. He left homemade bombs in it, which he could detonate remotely if everything worked properly. A bulletproof vest and a drone were also found in the car, which he had allegedly used to scout the area in the days leading up to it.
The ladder allowed him to reach the roof of a complex owned by AGR International, a company that supplies equipment for bottle production. From there he had a view of the stage where Trump was standing. He fired eight shots.
4. How is it possible that they didn’t stop him in time?
Crooks had prepared his attack well, but he could not avoid being discovered. He was identified as a suspicious person because he did not enter the site himself and because he was carrying a rangefinder.
This was communicated by the local police, responsible for security outside the protected area, to the Secret Service, the service that protects VIPs. This did not happen through a central communication system, but by text message. It is possible that this report did not reach the right people or was not considered serious enough to postpone Trump’s action. The police lost track of it.
Once on the sloping roof, Crooks was only visible at the last moment, as he crossed the ridge to take aim at Trump, visible to two Secret Service “counter-sniper” teams on opposite roofs.
Its position was known to be a possible nest of artillerymen. Two members of a special unit of the local police had to keep an eye on it. They did so from a higher part of the building. But after being informed that a suspicious person was in the area, the two went down to look for him.
On the other hand, agents on the ground noticed, possibly after warnings from the public, that someone was on the roof of the AGR. One of them climbed onto the edge of the roof. He and Crooks saw each other, but the officer had to duck at gunpoint. Immediately afterward, Crooks began shooting. Fifteen seconds later, a Secret Service sniper shot him in the head.
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