U.S. Secret Service faces scrutiny after Trump shooting

Secret Service under scrutiny after gunman targets Trump at rally, with Biden calling for independent review.

The U.S. Secret Service was under intense scrutiny on July 14 after a gunman managed to evade its agents and open fire on former President Donald Trump at a political rally, with Republican leaders vowing swift investigations and President Joe Biden calling for an independent review.

The gunman, a 20-year-old Pennsylvania man, injured Trump and killed a rally attendee from a rooftop perch around 150 yards (140 m) from the stage where the former President was speaking in Butler, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh, officials said.

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Trump, 78, who like other former Presidents has lifetime protection by the Secret Service, was swarmed by agents who then rushed him away. Agents killed the shooter, identified by the FBI as Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, and an AR-15-style semiautomatic was recovered near his body, officials said.

Trump says a bullet hit his upper right ear but that he is otherwise doing well and would travel to the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, where he will receive his party's presidential nomination.

Mike Johnson, speaker of the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives, said panels in the chamber will call officials from the Secret Service, the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI for hearings.

"The American people deserve to know the truth," Johnson said.