The Question Everyone Is Asking About The Rooftop From Trump's Assassination

Former U.S. president Donald Trump was the target of an assassination attempt — one of many — on Saturday, July 13, 2024. He was in the middle of a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, campaigning for his second bid at the presidency after he lost the 2020 election and left the White House the following year. He was shot in the ear and left with minor injuries, while one bystander was killed and two seriously injured.

Assassination plots — successful or not — are often followed by scrutiny and theories about the true nature of the attacks, perhaps most infamously the JFK magic bullet theory. The attempt on Trump's life was no different. Amid the aftermath, many pointed out things that didn't make sense about the incident. For one, witnesses had warned police of the alleged shooter — who the FBI identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks — beforehand, and he also took his shot from a conspicuously unguarded roof. And as days went by, more strange details surfaced.

According to NBC News, two sources familiar with the Secret Service's operations told the outlet that the rooftop was identified as a potential security vulnerability in the days before the assassination attempt. Located roughly 148 yards from the area where Trump was shot, the building where Thomas Matthew Crooks allegedly fired at the former president is owned by American Glass Research. But The New York Times reported the Secret Service left the structure outside its security plans, leaving it in the hands of local law enforcement officials, who for whatever reason did not station anyone on the roof. "Someone should have been on the roof or securing the building so no one could get on the roof," one of the sources, a former senior Secret Service agent, told NBC News.

Butler County District Attorney Richard Goldinger said the security of the venue was in the hands of Secret Service agents. "They had meetings in the week prior," he told NBC News, noting that they "designated who did what" and were the "top" in the command hierarchy. Jason Russell, who worked as a Secret Service agent from 2002 to 2010, told the BBC that the agency is limited in the number of agents they can post, and these workers typically determine positioning and share the plan with local law enforcement. On the Sunday following the attack, President Joe Biden said he directed the Secret Service to conduct an independent review of the security measures at the rally to determine what went wrong — and how Crooks was able to get as far as he did in his alleged plot. 

When Thomas Matthew Crooks allegedly shot at Donald Trump, three snipers were reportedly in the building. According to CBS News, a law enforcement officer who spoke to the outlet said the team saw Crooks observing the roof and building before the shooting. The suspect allegedly left their view twice — the second time pulling out a rangefinder — before returning a third time with a backpack and appearing to head to the back of the structure. During Crook's second appearance, one of the snipers snapped a photo of the suspect and radioed the command center to warn of the potential threat. Police eventually arrived for backup, but not before Crooks had already climbed onto the building. A Secret Service sniper killed him before officers got onto the roof.

How an armed sniper with a rifle kit was able to reach the rooftop — which was already deemed a potential security threat — is the focus of scrutiny in the wake of the attack. Joseph LaSorsa, a former Secret Service agent who served on the presidential detail, told Reuters there is going to be an "intensive review" of the attack and a "massive realignment." "This cannot happen," he added.