Secret Service Boss Explains Why No One Was Stationed On Roof Where Gunman Shot At Trump

 Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle told ABC News on Monday that the reason there were no security personnel atop the structure where a gunman took shots at former President Donald Trump was because of “safety” concerns about the slope of its roof. 

The Secret Service has faced intense scrutiny after 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks was able to access the roof of a building about 147 yards away from where Trump was speaking in Butler, Pennsylvania, last Saturday and take several shots. 

“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 said accordingto Fox News. “And so, you know, the decision was made to secure the building, from inside.”

In the same interview, she acknowledged that the assassination attempt on Trump represented a security failure. 

“The buck stops with me,” Cheatle said, adding, “This is an event that should have never happened.” 

Cheatle also said that authorities had identified the gunman as a person of interest before the shooting but were not able to locate him before he fired at the rally, injuring Trump, killing one of his supporters, and injuring two others. 

“I’m being told that the shooter was actually identified as a potential person of suspicion. Units started responding to seek that individual out,” Cheatle 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.” 

A photo taken during the rally shows how close the building Crooks fired from was to Trump.

According to some reports, local law enforcement spotted the gunman around 30 minutes before the shooting took place, witnessing him walking around with a rangefinder. Other video and eyewitness accounts just before the attack show Trump supporters yelling about the gunman minutes before he opened fire.

Cheatle has faced calls to resign over the assassination attempt but has maintained she will stay in her position. She is expected to testify before House lawmakers on Monday about the incident. 

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has said that he has complete confidence in Cheatle. He added that the agency is now “focused on learning from the event and adopting those lessons to be stronger and better.”