Trump shooter surveilled rally site with a DJI-made camera drone just hours before attempted assassination, reports say
The shooter used a drone on a programmed flight path to research and obtain aerial footage of the area ahead of the rally, reports say.
REBECCA DROKE/Getty Images
- Thomas Matthew Crooks flew a drone over Trump's rally site hours before his assassination attempt.
- Crooks reportedly used a DJI-made camera drone to survey the area.
- One person at the rally was killed and two were critically injured after Crooks opened fire.
Thomas Matthew Crooks, the gunman who attempted to assassinate Donald Trump, flew a drone over the rally site just hours before he opened fire, according to multiple reports.
Crooks used a programmed flight path to research and obtain aerial footage of the area ahead of the rally, which took place in Butler, Pennsylvania, The Wall Street Journal first reported, citing law-enforcement officials briefed on the matter.
The 20-year-old, who was from Bethel Park, PA, used a DJI-made camera drone to carry out the surveillance, NBC News reported, citing a source familiar with the matter.
The news has ramped up criticism of the security measures in place at the event.
Typically, federal authorities ban drones from flying over secured areas, but it remains unclear if this protocol was enforced at the Butler rally, per NBC News.
The Secret Service has already received backlash over its role at the event.
Crooks was able to climb onto the roof of a warehouse building only around 450 feet away from Trump while carrying an AR-15-style rifle, despite law enforcement officers already having raised concerns about someone acting suspiciously in the area.
The Secret Service had excluded the warehouse from its security zone.
After positioning himself on the roof, Crooks opened fire, striking the former president's right ear. One person was killed, and two were critically injured during the incident. Crooks was killed by a Secret Service sniper.
Tim McCarthy, a former Secret Service agent who defended former President Ronald Reagan from a gunman in 1981, told Chicago-based outlet WGN-TV that the assassination attempt on Trump represented a "failure" for his security team.
"It's a failure. Plain and simple," he said. "When President Regan was shot, that was a failure too."
"Any time a protectee is harmed, there's something that has to change," he added. "You have to critically look at what happened, why it happened, and how it can be prevented in the future."
Matt Shoemaker, a former intelligence officer at the Defense Intelligence Agency, added: "For the alleged shooter to be on a rooftop, with a clear shot to the podium — it is mind-boggling to say that this was overlooked."
House Speaker Mike Johnson has since told NBC's "Today" show that Congress would be carrying out an investigation into security at the event "to determine where there were lapses in security and anything else that the American people need to know and deserve to know."
The director of the Secret Service, Kimberly Cheatle, is set to testify before Congress on Monday.
On Friday, Secret Service spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi posted a statement on X that said the agency was "committed to better understanding what happened before, during, and after the assassination attempt of former President Trump to ensure it never happens again."
"That includes complete cooperation with Congress, the FBI, and other relevant investigations," the statement added.