Four unanswered questions about Trump assassination attempt

Days after a gunman shot at former President Donald Trump during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, questions persist about how the shocking incident could have occurred.

Authorities have not explained how or why Thomas Matthew Crooks, the 20-year-old armed suspect, gained a clear line of sight of Trump from a rooftop about 400 feet away from the former president.

Scrutiny of the Secret Service has intensified in the aftermath of the event, and signs of finger-pointing between the agency and local police have cropped up in media reports.

The FBI, whose Pittsburgh Field Office is leading the investigation of the shooting, said Monday that its inquiry was in an “early stage” but that it had interviewed nearly 100 witnesses and received hundreds of tips.

Meanwhile, President Joe Biden has called for an independent review of the attempted assassination, and congressional lawmakers in both chambers from across the political spectrum have demanded information about it. Lawmakers and officials are expected to receive briefings and hold meetings and hearings about it in the coming days and weeks.

Trump, who was looking to the side when Crooks fired multiple rounds toward him, was nicked in the ear and suffered a minor injury. One person was killed, and two were injured and remain in critical but stable condition as of Tuesday, according to an Allegheny health official.

Below are some of the open questions percolating after the first gunshot to hit a president or former president since 1981.

Why wasn't the roof secure?

Crooks obtained access to the roof of a building owned by a glass research company, and videos circulating online show bystanders observing him crawling on top of the facility for nearly a minute while Trump was speaking. Some observers could be heard calling out for police to respond.

Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, who has worked at the agency for 25 years, said during an interview with ABC News that her team identified the building ahead of the rally but opted to secure it from the inside rather than from the roof of it because of the roof’s slant. The explanation fell flat on social media, where critics shared images of law enforcement officers working on slanted roofs.

“That building in particular has a sloped roof at its highest point, and so, you know, there’s a safety factor that would be considered there that we wouldn’t want to put somebody up on a sloped roof,” Cheatle said. “And so, you know, the decision was made to secure the building from inside.”

What was the gunman's motive?

The FBI announced this week that it gained access to Crooks’s phone and completed investigations of his home and vehicle.

The bureau, however, provided no information about what prompted Crooks’s attempt on Trump’s life. Even after searching Crooks’s phone, the FBI still had not determined a motive, according to NBC News.

Records matching Crooks’s description show he was a registered Republican but donated $15 to the “Progressive Turnout Project PAC" on Jan. 20, 2021, Trump’s last day in office. His parents told the Wall Street Journal they were unaware of what political leanings their son may have had.

How did he get past police in the building?

Cheatle said during the interview that the Secret Service was responsible for the inner perimeter of the rally, while local law enforcement in Butler County was responsible for the outer area.

Armed local police were inside the building when Crooks hoisted himself up onto the roof using an air conditioning unit, meaning the police would have had no eyes on the outside of the building, according to CNN.

What took so long to stop the gunman?

A countersniper shot and killed Crooks seconds after he opened fire, but it remains unclear why he was ever able to take a shot at all when law enforcement had become concerned about him before he crawled onto the roof.

Well before Crooks accessed the rooftop, he became a person of interest during the rally security screening process.

One report said he passed through magnetometers with a rangefinder, which is a firearm accessory used to take long shots, three hours before the shooting. This prompted authorities conducting screenings to keep an eye on him.

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Another report said observers noticed him acting erratically around the metal detectors, leading local police to alert the Secret Service about him.

The "working theory," according to CNN, is that officers lost track of Crooks when he left the rally entrance area and went to his truck to grab his rifle.