Secret Service faces questions on why building was left out of Trump rally security zone

WASHINGTON – The building from which

a gunman fired at former US president Donald Trump

on July 13 was – at least in hindsight – an obvious security risk.

Its rooftop offered an ideal sniper’s perch, with a close, elevated and unobstructed view of Trump.

But when the Secret Service drew up plans for the July 13 rally, it left that building outside its security perimeter. Instead, local law enforcement officials in Butler, Pennsylvania, were given responsibility for that building, and no police officers were stationed on the roof itself.

The building, used as a warehouse by equipment manufacturer AGR International, has become a focal point of

myriad investigations into the shooting

that nearly felled a former US president, one that Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on July 15 called a security failure.

The first question is why the building, about 137m from the stage, was left out of the perimeter.

A Secret Service advance team visited the site and made the determination, and a supervisor would have had to approve it. The agency so far has not said who that was.

That is just one of many unanswered questions.

It is also unclear how the gunman got on the roof. People at the rally reported a suspicious person to local law enforcement. Quickly thereafter, rally visitors pointed out a man on the warehouse, and the Secret Service shot and killed him after he began his assault.

The Secret Service has not said whether local law enforcement officers made service agents aware of a suspect, or whether those officers were up to the task of dealing with the situation.

But the central question is whether

the Secret Service had failed at its most basic mission:

Keeping America’s leaders, including a former president, safe.

The security lapse is now the centre of overlapping investigations, run by members of Congress and the Secret Service.

On July 15, leaders of the Senate’s Homeland Security Committee announced their own investigation into the shooting on the night of July 13.

Senators Gary Peters and Rand Paul told the Secret Service in a letter that they wanted to know “how the suspect was able to get this close to a Secret Service protectee”.

“An incident like this cannot happen,” Mr Mayorkas told CNN, adding, “When I say something like this cannot happen, we are speaking of a failure.”

Former federal law enforcement officials have said the Secret Service should have ensured the building was secured before the rally took place. The agency often relies on local law enforcement agencies for security at events.

An eyewitness to the July 13 shooting said he had been allowed to walk into the same area as the warehouse without a security check.

Mr Nathan Steadman said he and his daughter were standing under a nearby tree, where they had a clear view of Trump.

Within minutes of Trump taking the stage, Mr Steadman said he noticed people pointing at the building adjacent to the tree they were under.

He went to take a closer look and saw the shooter crawl across the roof and pull out the black barrel of a gun. Mr Steadman turned towards his daughter, who was about 9m away, and screamed: “He’s got a gun!”

Mr Steadman said the shooter then rolled over onto his back, turned the opposite direction, and fired twice in the direction away from where Trump was speaking.

Mr Steadman said he could not see whom the gunman was shooting at in that direction. After those first shots, Mr Steadman ran and then heard another volley of gunshots.

It is still not clear when and how the gunman got onto the roof of the warehouse.

Mr Anthony Guglielmi, a Secret Service spokesman, said on July 14 that local law enforcement had been notified of a suspicious person by rally visitors before the event started.

In an interview on July 15, he said local police officers were in contact through radio with the agency before the shooting, including about the concerned warnings from passers-by.

“There were radio communications between the Secret Service and local authorities acknowledging that the local police were dealing with an incident, an issue of a suspicious person,” he said.

Mr Guglielmi declined to provide more details, citing the pending investigations.

At 6.03pm (6.03am Singapore time), Trump took the stage at the Butler Farm Show grounds, clapping and gesturing to the crowds as the song God Bless The USA played.

By 6.09pm, videos analysed by The New York Times show people in attendance pointing at the roof of the warehouse. Two minutes later, the first shots rang out.

In aerial videos taken after the shooting

, a ladder can be seen propped up against the building from which the shooter fired.

An AGR employee who works in the warehouse told the Times that employees there had never seen the ladder near the building before. It is unclear if the ladder had been placed by the shooter, or law enforcement responding to the shooting.

Former Secret Service agents said the agency begins planning for campaign events like this one day before, dispatching its advance team to survey the site and meet local authorities.

In Butler, the Secret Service first reached out to local authorities about the rally on July 5 – eight days beforehand – and held its first meeting with them on July 8, according to Mr Steve Bicehouse, the county emergency services director.

Mr Donald Mihalek, a former Secret Service agent who worked in the protective details for former presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, said the service’s standard procedure is to finalise with local authorities a security plan before the event, known as a “preliminary survey”.

The survey is then approved by a Secret Service supervisor. The leadership of other local law enforcement agencies can also weigh in.

“Supervisors get briefed on the plan and check to see if there are any gaps and try to fill those gaps. And once that’s done, it’s game time,” he said. NYTIMES