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.
A rooster?
That dumb bitch has got to go. (If I only had a nickle for every time I have said that in the last 3.5 years.)
Even wheelchair ramps have more slope than that.
Instead of using blind SS agents, like those at the podium, she could have hired a couple of paraplegic SS officers to work the roof.
Looks more like 3/12 to me at the most. You could play volleyball up there. Notice that the perp didn’t even roll off the roof.
Yep. Even if not for the actual assassination attempt, this answer is so bad she should be fired for this alone. There’s *barely* a slope and other agents we on steeper slopes.
SMH.
The truth is that they wanted that building clear.
“She doesn’t have the background or common sense to supervise an armed force”
As I understand it she was an agent for a significant period before going into the corporate executive position. So I think she IS qualified and this lends weight to the whole thing being malfeasance, not incompetence.
She didn’t want to put anybody on that roof because it might distract the assassin
Idiocracy.
“...I have seen roofers on vaulted ceilings that have a steep pitch do it with no harness.....”
Yes, but it is an OSHA violation and this is a federal government agency that would “never” do anything illegal (/sarcasm). I think we both agree that this is a BS excuse.
Sloped roof? Uhhmm, that is a slight incline, NOT a slope.
She’s too dense to be embarrassed by her statement.
Too many Cheetos.
Exactly what I was going to say.
They made it sound like it was a Shaker type roof up north to get snow off but it’s less of a decline than the roof their agents were perched upon.
Liars covering their butts.
“she was an agent for a significant period before going into the corporate executive position. So I think she IS qualified”
Affirmative action has been a “thing” for decades.
Unqualified women were being hired and promoted as far back as the late 1960s.
Cheatle needs to be demoted to GS-1 pay scale and assigned to that roof, guarding the nearby field, for 40 hours a week until she resigns.
“It was a hot day and the SS team decided to provide “protection” from inside the air conditioned building rather than baking in the sun on a tin roof.”
≠=========================
THIS!!!
But this doesn’t read too good in print so they made up a more ridiculous story and hoped it stuck!
Her ass needs to be kicked to the curb.
So are they saying there were agents INSIDE the building?? Didn’t they wonder what all the commotion on the roof was?
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