The Secret Service is investigating how a sniper who shot and injured Trump managed to get so close

The US Secret Service is investigating how a man armed with an AR rifle managed to get close enough to shoot and hurt former president Donald Trump at a rally Saturday in Pennsylvania, a monumental failure in one of the agency’s core functions.

The shooter, who was killed by Secret Service officials, fired several shots on stage from an “elevated position outside the rally site,” the agency said.

An Associated Press analysis of more than a dozen videos and photos taken at Trump’s rally, as well as satellite images of the scene, shows that the gunman managed to get surprisingly close to the stage where the former president was speaking. A video posted on social media and geotagged by the AP shows the body of a man wearing gray camouflage lying motionless on the roof of a factory north of the Butler Farm Show grounds where Trump’s rally was held.

The rooftop was less than 500 feet from where Trump was speaking, a distance from which a decent sniper could reasonably hit a human-sized target. For reference, 150 meters is a distance at which US Army recruits must achieve a human-scale silhouette to qualify with the M16 assault rifle in basic training. The AR-15, as the shooter at the Trump rally did, is the semi-automatic civilian version of the military M16.

The FBI on Sunday morning identified the shooter as Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania.

The Secret Service had no one at an evening news conference where officials from the FBI and Pennsylvania State Police briefed reporters on the shooting investigation. FBI Special Agent in Charge Kevin Rojek said it was “surprising” that the shooter was able to shoot at the stage before being killed.

Members of the Secret Service’s counter-sniper and counter-assault team were at the rally, according to two law enforcement officials. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss details of the investigation.

The heavily armed counterattack team, whose Secret Service codename is “Hawkeye,” is responsible for eliminating threats so that other agents can protect and take away the person they are protecting. The counter-sniper team, known by the codename “Hercules,” uses long-range binoculars and is equipped with sniper rifles to deal with long-range threats.

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said his department and the Secret Service are working with authorities to investigate the shooting. Maintaining the security of presidential candidates and their campaign events is one of the department’s “most vital priorities,” he said.

“We condemn this violence in the strongest possible terms and commend the Secret Service for its swift action today,” Mayorkas said. “We are engaged with President Biden, former President Trump and their campaigns, and are taking every step possible to ensure their safety and security.”

Requests for an investigation came from all sides.

James Comer, a Kentucky Republican who is chairman of the House Oversight Committee, said he contacted Service Services for a briefing and asked Director Kimberly Cheatle to appear for a hearing. Comer said his committee will send a formal invitation soon.

“Political violence in all forms is un-American and unacceptable. There are many questions and Americans demand answers,” Comer said in a statement.

US Representative Ritchie Torres, a Democrat from New York, called for an investigation into “security failures” at the rally.

“The federal government must constantly learn from security failures to prevent their recurrence, especially when these failures have implications for the nation,” Torres said.

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, posted on X that he and his team are in contact with security planning coordinators ahead of the Republican National Convention scheduled to begin Monday in Milwaukee. “We cannot be a country that accepts any kind of political violence — we are not like that as Americans,” Evers said.

The FBI said it will lead the investigation into the shooting, working with the Secret Service and local and state authorities.

Attorney General Merrick Garland said the Justice Department “will bring all available resources to this investigation.”

“My heart goes out to the former president, those injured and the family of the bystander killed in this horrific attack,” Garland said in a statement. “We will not tolerate violence of any kind, and violence like this is an attack on our democracy.”

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Associated Press writers Colleen Long and Zeke Miller in Washington contributed to this report.