Posted on 07/16/2024 11:30:06 AM PDT by Red Badger
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.”
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, missing his head by inches.
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.
The post ‘Sloping roof’ used by assassin was too dangerous for our agents, says Secret Service chief appeared first on The Telegraph.
The roof they actually chose to perch on was even more slanted..............
Don’t worry, the The Pittsburgh FBI Field Office is running point on this investigation- the same field office that buried the Biden bribery tip in Ukraine.
The more stupid excuses they make up the more it’s obvious that they were complicit in the assassination attempt.
Yeah, dumb lying Witch with a “B”! The roof was too dangerous for the SS snipers but not for the assassin. Only Dumb Democrat Voters are this gullible.
SS was standing down to enable assassin. It’s just that simple. The Bi-Dung check cleared.
Boy is she a piece of work, what a boob. That looks like a very flat sloping roof to me. She needs to resign or be fired immediately.
Even then, they saw the guy on the ground, with the intent to climb.
Looks like it might be a 4/12 pitch. Piece of cake to walk on it. If fact after it was over it showed Secret Service walking on it with no problem.
I call BS.
Notice the police officers struggling to stay standing on that dangerously sloped roof.
“He” will abandon that excuse in a day or two.
I’d make Cheatle scale the building and walk the roof.
Apparently, all a potential assassin needs in order to be allowed to go unfettered is to locate a building with a slanted roof and they’re good to go!
Just like Paulie betrayed Don Corleone.
“Oh Paulie, you won’t see him no more!”
I’m amazed that she still has the job.
Joe Biden’s life is at risk too by such incompetence.
How can the Bee even compete?
It's a miracle.
“Here’s a perfect place for a sniper to post himself and kill the President but it’s too dangerous for our agents to post themselves so let’s just leave it unguarded.’
image from floppingaces.net
BS
Another member of The Democrat Party Organized Crime Syndicate throwing out BS to try and cover up.
We’ve all seen the slope of that roof.
She wants us to believe her and not our own eyes.
Her behavior just adds more weight to the thought that The Democrat Party Organized Crime Syndicate orchestrated this assassination attempt.
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