MOSCOW, July 26 The law enforcement officer guarding the roof from which Thomas Crooks later attempted to assassinate former US President Donald Trump has left his post due to unbearable heat, Fox News reports.
«The law enforcement officer who was assigned to that roof left it… He or she became too hot, and (the officer) decided that it was not necessary to remain on the roof,» the channel quotes Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee member Josh Hawley as saying, citing a whistleblower with information about the US Secret Service's plan of action on the day of the assassination attempt.
The temperature in Butler, where the event was held, reportedly reached 93 degrees that day, causing emergency personnel at Trump's speech to be mostly busy helping people who became ill due to the heat.
A shooting occurred at Trump's campaign rally in Pennsylvania on July 13, in which the former president was shot in the ear, one audience member was killed, and two others were critically injured. The Secret Service said it had killed a suspect who fired several shots toward the stage. The New York Post reported that he was hiding on the roof of an industrial building about 100 meters from the stage, outside the event area.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said on July 17 that it would investigate the Secret Service's work in providing security for Trump during his campaign rally. The FBI is investigating the incident as an assassination attempt and possible domestic terrorism. The suspect is 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, according to the bureau.