Investigation continues into shooting at Trump Rally in Pennsylvania

By Carleen Wild Moody County Enterprise
Posted 7/17/24

Last weekend’s shooting at former President Donald Trump’s campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, is being investigated as an attempted assassination — the first such attempt on a former president since Ronald Reagan in 1981.

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Investigation continues into shooting at Trump Rally in Pennsylvania

Posted

Last weekend’s shooting at former President Donald Trump’s campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, is being investigated as an attempted assassination — the first such attempt on a former president since Ronald Reagan in 1981.
The White House and lawmakers from both sides of the aisle are questioning how the gunman, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, managed to climb onto the roof of a nearby building Saturday with an AR-style rifle, only 150 yards from the stage where Trump was speaking, and open fire.
U.S. Rep. Ritchie Torres, a New York Democrat, called for an investigation into the “security failures” at the rally.
“The federal government must constantly learn from security failures in order to avoid repeating them, especially when those failures have implications for the nation,” Torres said.

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, posted on X that he and his staff are in contact with security planning coordinators ahead of the Republican National Convention set to begin Monday in Milwaukee. “We cannot be a country that accepts political violence of any kind—that is not who we are as Americans,” Evers said.
Trump initially said he would not be attending the rally on Sunday but later decided to go, calling for unity and resilience.
Rep. Mike Kelly, a Republican who represents the Butler area and was seated behind Trump when the shooting occurred, said he was “bewildered by how and what has happened to the United States of America.”
To his colleagues and others quickly assigning blame or calling for a congressional investigation, Kelly urged patience and cautioned against politicizing the probe.
“I just wish people would tone it down,” he said. “Quit trying to blame somebody. The blame lies somewhere in the psyche of America.”
The FBI plans to lead the investigation into the shooting, working with the Secret Service, local, and state law enforcement. Corey Comperatore, a former fire chief from the Butler area, died during the incident while trying to protect his family. Two other adult males were critically injured.
South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley said in a statement late Saturday, “Violence of any kind, whether directed at public figures or private citizens, has no place in our society. Thank you to the law enforcement officers who rushed to protect former President Trump and those at the rally. We also extend our condolences to the families of those who have either died or been injured as a result of today’s shooting.”