Trump gunman shot from roof that wasn't secured by any agency
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[July 17, 2024]
(Reuters) - The gunman who tried to assassinate Donald
Trump fired from a rooftop that the U.S. Secret Service had declared to
be outside its security perimeter -- a fatal omission that the agency
should not have made, according to two of its former officials.
Two local Pennsylvania police officers who went to check out a dispatch
call of a suspicious person in the area were alone when one of them,
hoisted up by a partner to check the roof, was confronted by the gunman,
20-year-old Thomas Crooks, Butler County Sheriff Michael Slupe said in
an interview.
That exposed a major hole in the security, said Kenneth Valentine, a
former Secret Service special agent in charge: "He shouldn't have been
able to get up on the roof."
Valentine said the agency also should have had someone watching the
rooftops and able to stop the threat as the next line of defense.
The Secret Service, which is responsible for Trump's safety as both a
former president and the Republican presidential candidate, did not
respond to multiple requests for comment.
But since the shooting it has said the building roughly 150 yards (140
m) from the stage where Trump spoke fell outside the area it had secured
for the outdoor event, and local and state police said it was not their
responsibility.
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That oversight allowed Crooks to access the roof unimpeded and fire
directly at Trump, grazing his ear, killing a rallygoer and wounding two
other attendees.
"The Secret Service said the building was outside the perimeter. That’s
not true. That should have been within the perimeter," said a former
Secret Service agent in an interview. "This is a massive failure."
Both former Secret Service officials said the agency should have
identified the building as a security risk and taken responsibility that
it could not be accessed.
President Joe Biden has ordered an independent review of how the gunman
could have come so close to killing Trump despite the heavy security
provided at Saturday's event in Butler, Pennsylvania. The agency also
faces probes from Congress.
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![](../images/071724PIX/news_y54.jpg)
A memorial sign is placed near the fence of the Butler Farm Show,
the site of the attempted assassination of Republican presidential
candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump in Butler,
Pennsylvania, U.S. July 16, 2024. REUTERS/Carlos Osorio
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Slupe told Reuters that Butler County sheriff's deputies were not
responsible for security inside or outside the perimeter.
The Pennsylvania State Police, which helped to staff the event,
likewise said it was not responsible for securing the building,
owned by packaging equipment company AGR International.
Police in Butler Township, where the rally took place, did not
respond to a request for comment.
AGR officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Slupe told Reuters that local police officers from Butler Township
responded to reports of a suspicious person seen walking in the
area. Officers were sent a picture of the individual but were not
told he was armed, he said.
Slupe said Trump would not have been allowed to take the stage if
police knew there was a suspicious individual on the roof.
"Listen, if he was on the roof, right, and we got that information
and I heard that, I would never have let that president walk out
onto that catwalk," Slupe said in a phone interview.
Slupe said one of the officers was hoisted by another onto the roof,
where the shooter turned around and pointed his rifle at him, Slupe
said. The officer dropped back down to the ground. Crooks opened
fire on the president shortly afterward, he said.
(Additional reporting by Jonathan Allen; Writing by Andy Sullivan;
Editing by Scott Malone and Alistair Bell)
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