AA / Washington / Michael Hernandez
Law enforcement authorities began investigating Monday the motives of a 20-year-old man they say tried to assassinate former President Donald Trump while he was holding a campaign rally in Pennsylvania.
Thomas Matthew Crooks was shot and killed by Secret Service agents shortly after a shooting at a campaign rally Saturday in Butler, Pennsylvania. One rally attendee was killed and two other victims were seriously injured.
Crooks was a registered Republican and reportedly made a $15 political donation to a progressive group. The Secret Service has begun re-examining security lapses that led to the shooting, while the FBI is conducting a criminal investigation to determine the shooter's motives.
Homeland Security Director Alejandro Mayorkas acknowledged the shooting represented a “failure” for his department, which counts the Secret Service among its agencies.
“When I say something like this could not have happened, that is a failure. We will conduct an independent assessment to determine how and why this happened, and we will draw conclusions and make recommendations to ensure that this does not happen,” he said. “Again, I cannot be more clear.”
The FBI said it was investigating the shooting as a “possible act of domestic terrorism.”
“Our counterterrorism and criminal divisions are working together to determine a motive,” Robert Wells, deputy director of the FBI’s National Security Branch, told reporters.
President Joe Biden said Sunday he has asked the FBI to ensure its investigation is “thorough and swift.”
Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle said the agency is “working with all relevant federal, state and local agencies to understand what happened, how it happened, and how we can prevent an incident like this from happening again.”
“We understand the importance of the independent assessment announced by President Biden yesterday and will participate fully in it and also work with the relevant congressional committees,” she said in a statement.
The Republican National Convention, where Trump will formally receive the party's nomination, begins Monday with four days of events.
Kimberly Shettle said Saturday's shooting “raised questions about potential security improvements or changes” at the event, but she said she was “confident in the security plan put in place by the Secret Service and our partners at the Republican National Convention.”
*Translated from English by Murad Belhaj
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