MOSCOW, July 16/Prime Perpetrated an assassination attempt on ex -US President Donald Trump, during a rally in Pennsylvania, was able to get onto the roof because it was outside the security perimeter of the US Secret Service, Reuters reports, citing several US officials.
Previously, the head of the US Secret Service, Kimberly Cheatle, said in an interview with ABC News that the building from which the fire was fired was in the area of responsibility of local law enforcement agencies, whose employees, according to her, were located inside, while the shooter was located on the roof .
«The gunman attempting to assassinate Trump opened fire from a roof that the US Secret Service said was outside its security perimeter — a terrible oversight that the agency should not have allowed,» the agency reported. citing two former Secret Service officials.
As former US Secret Service operative Kenneth Valentine told the agency, such an omission turned out to be a “huge gap” in ensuring the security of the ex-president. He added about the need to monitor the roof during the rally.
«The Secret Service said the building was outside the perimeter. This is not true. It should have been inside the perimeter. This is a huge failure,» the agency quotes Valentine.
As Butler County Sheriff Michael Sloop added to the agency, local police officers were not responsible for security in the area inside or outside the security perimeter. Local police officers received a photo of Crooks, but they did not know whether he was armed, he said.
The agency adds, citing former Secret Service officials, that it should have identified the building where the shooter was on the roof as a security threat and take responsibility for the inability to access it.
Earlier, the Washington Post, citing Butler County Sheriff Michael Sloop, reported that a local police officer could not prevent the shooter from opening fire on US presidential candidate Donald Trump at the last moment during a campaign rally.
On Saturday, a shooting occurred at a Trump campaign speech in Pennsylvania, the ex-president was wounded in the ear, one of the spectators was killed, and two others were critically injured. The US Secret Service said it had killed a suspect who fired several shots towards the stage. He was reported to be hiding on the roof of a production building about 100 meters from the stage, outside the event area.
The FBI is investigating the incident as «an assassination attempt and possible domestic terrorism.» The suspect, according to the FBI, is 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks from Pennsylvania.