Sloping roof used by assassin ‘too dangerous’ for Secret Service agents
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The US Secret Service did not put agents on the rooftop where an assassin shot at Donald Trump for health and safety reasons, the head of the agency has said.
Kimberly Cheatle, the Secret Service director, said the “sloped roof” where Thomas Matthew Crooks was positioned on Saturday could have posed a risk to agents.
“That building in particular has a sloped roof at its highest point. And so, you know, there’s a safety factor that would be considered there that we wouldn’t want to put somebody up on a sloped roof,” she told ABC News on Tuesday.
“And so, you know, the decision was made to secure the building, from inside.”
According to a Secret Service official, local police were stationed inside the Agr International building and radioed to alert agents to a man acting furtively, the Washington Post reported.
Joe Biden, the US president, has ordered a review into how Crooks was able to gain access to a point with a direct line of sight to Trump as he spoke at a rally in Pennsylvania.
A bullet fired at Trump grazed his ear, narrowly missing his head.
Ms Cheatle, who is facing calls to resign, admitted that Crooks had been spotted by the agency before he opened fire, but had not been stopped.
The rooftop was outside of the secure zone set up for Trump’s rally, around 150 metres from the stage where he spoke.
“The shooter was actually identified as a potential person of suspicion,” she said.
“Unfortunately, with the rapid succession of how things unfolded, by the time that individual was eventually located, they were on the rooftop and were able to fire off at the former president.”
It came amid reports that a Secret Service sniper photographed the man who fired several shots at Donald Trump and watched him using a range-finder before the shooting.
Crooks, 20, was spotted looking up at the roof from where he would eventually fire at the stage during the former president’s speech.
The sniper snapped a picture of the would-be assassin as he sat down near the building looking at his mobile telephone and using a range-finder, CBS News reported.
Crooks was later observed returning to the area for a third time, this time with a rucksack, when the sniper radioed in the information.
A report by Fox News, citing an anonymous law enforcement source, said local officers had also spotted a suspicious man carrying a range-finder “in or just outside” the Butler Farm Show grounds before Trump took to the stage to deliver a campaign speech last Saturday.
The officer reported the sighting to the state police, with a discussion had over whether the man was simply carrying binoculars to get a better vantage point of the rally.
At this point both Fox and CBS reported that state police officers were rushing to the scene.
But within minutes the assassin, later identified as Crooks by the FBI, had already opened fire, injuring Trump, killing a spectator and wounding two others.
By the time officers had arrived, Secret Service snipers had already shot and killed Crooks, later discovering a radio transmitter in his pocket and explosives in his car parked nearby.
Crooks was said to have been watched by Secret Service agents and local law enforcement officers for about 30 minutes before his failed assassination attempt.
The reports only add to the pressure being heaped on the Secret Service for the security lapses that allowed an attempt on the life of a former president.
Unconfirmed footage circulated on social media appeared to show Secret Service snipers performing overwatch at the venue moving to face in the direction of the assassin a minute before he opened fire.
The US Congress has also launched an investigation into what it described as “inexcusable security breaches” at the Trump rally.
In the prior 48 hours before Crooks opened fire on Trump, reports have detailed how he travelled to a shooting range, a gun store and a hardware store.
On the Friday before the attack, he went to a shooting range where he was a member to practice firing, a law enforcement official told CNN.
The next day, he purchased 50 rounds of ammunition from a nearby gun store and a ladder from a Home Depot.
It isn’t clear whether both the ammunition and ladder were used in the attack. Investigators believe he used an air conditioner to clamber onto the roof from where he took the shots.
