.IT WAS ACTUALLY A spectacular lapse in protection: exactly how did a sniper install an unsafe roof with a straight line of sight to Donald Trump, that was standing up a simple 150m away? Based on video footage, it resembles Mr Trump was millimetres coming from fatality-- saved by a fortunate turn of the crown an instant just before Thomas Matthew Crooks, a 20-year-old from Pennsylvania, shot at him. Crooks killed a rally-goer before being fatally shot himself.