Trump shooter flew drone over rally site hours before assassination attempt

The attacker who tried to kill US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump flew a drone over the site of the rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday, just hours before the former president took the stage, police said during a briefing on the incident.

Wall Street Journal Officials said Friday that suspect Thomas Matthew Crooks flew the drone before Trump’s July 13 rally to scan the Butler Farm Show fairgrounds.

The security lapses were further highlighted when officials said Crooks may have flown the drone multiple times to survey the event location.

Normally, the Secret Service does not allow drones to fly at such locations for security reasons. However, what happened at the Butler meeting is not known.

The security lapses that nearly allowed the shooter to kill Trump included the failure of a local tactical team member to target the attacker, while a Secret Service agent killed Crooks with a single shot despite the target not being clearly visible.

Trump was shot in the ear during a campaign rally on July 13, causing the Republican presidential candidate’s blood to stream down his face and his security guards to surround him. He emerged, pumping his fist in the air and muttering the words “Fight! Fight! Fight!”

The shooter was dead, one attendee at the rally was killed and two other spectators were wounded, the Secret Service said in a statement.

Trump, 78, had just begun his speech when the shots rang out. He grabbed his right ear with his right hand, brought his hand down to look at it and sank to his knees behind the podium before Secret Service agents surrounded him and covered him up.

About a minute later, he came back out, his red “Make America Great Again” cap off, and he said, “Wait, wait,” and officers fist-bumped him toward a black SUV.

“I was hit by a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear,” Trump later said on his Truth Social platform after the shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania, about 30 miles (50 km) north of Pittsburgh. “There was significant blood loss.”

According to Trump’s campaign, he was doing “fine.”

Secret Service agents fatally shot the gunman after he opened fire from the roof of a building about 150 yards (140 meters) from the podium where Trump was speaking. The shots appeared to come from outside the area secured by the Secret Service, the agency said.

The shooting came less than four months before the Nov. 5 election, when Trump faces a rematch with Democratic President Joe Biden.

Biden said in a statement: “There is no place for this kind of violence in America. We must unite as one nation to condemn it.”