The episode of violence which saw the protagonist Donald Trump during a rally in Pennsylvania sparked a series of debates and concerns about the effectiveness of security measures dedicated to former U.S. presidents. An individual, later identified as Thomas Matthew Crooksviolated security protocols with worrying ease, positioning himself in a strategic point to strike, causing a wave of criticism towards the Secret Service and the police forces for their lack of preventive intervention.
The reaction to the security breach was not long in coming, with public figures such as Elon Musk who openly criticized the management of safety, raising doubts about the competence and possible underestimation of the risks by those responsible. The tragic event, for many, could have been avoided if the warnings of some participants in the rally had been listened to, who they had reported the presence of a man armed with a rifle on an adjacent roof, a position that guaranteed a clear view of the stage.
The FBI investigation confirmed who the attacker was, but left several questions unresolved, including that whether Crooks acted alone or had accomplices. It was also clarified that there had been no specific requests for increased security measures from Trump’s team ahead of the event, raising further questions about the effectiveness and preparedness of the services responsible for protection.
Despite some reports from witnesses, reported by the BBC and from New York Postindicated the presence of an armed individual on a roof shortly before the shooting, these were not initially taken seriously by the police. Such testimonies, now part of the investigation, raise significant questions about the readiness and competence of law enforcement in handling emergency situations. “I told the Secret Service agents that there was a man with a rifle on the roof but they continued to look at us and did nothing,” said one witness. “We were having a party and when we heard Trump speaking we went out and approached the field, near the trees. We couldn’t see him but we could hear him.” His testimony is shocking: “At a certain point,” he added, “we noticed a guy who was crawling on a roofarmed with a rifle, was about fifty meters away from us. We looked carefully at that guy, you could clearly see that he had a rifle. The police were all around and we said: hey, there’s a guy armed with a rifle, but they reacted like ‘what’s going on?’ and they didn’t do anythingthey looked at me, while I kept saying ‘look at the one on the roof.’”
But no one informed the agents inside protecting the former president. “I thought,” the witness continued, “why does Trump keep talking? Why didn’t they take him off the stage? In the meantime, I continued to stare at that guy on the roof, I did it for like two or three minutes, while the Secret Service was watching us. And at a certain point I heard five shots.”