The finger-pointing game has officially begun.
The Secret Service has blamed local police for not securing the rooftop where Matthew Crooks attempted to assassinate former President Donald Trump. The agency asserts that the area fell outside the perimeter they were assigned to protect.
According to a report from the New York Times, Anthony Gugliemi, a spokesperson for the Secret Service, stated that their responsibility was limited to the immediate area around the rally at Butler Farm Show Grounds.
The areas nearby, including the AGR International Inc. factory site where Crooks launched his attack, were under the jurisdiction of local law enforcement.
Local residents near the venue voiced their concern about the perceived lack of security measures in the days before the event.
Valerie Fennell, a local homeowner, told The New York Post, “Nobody contacted me. Nobody. Nobody called me, nobody stopped here.”
“I kinda was thinking that as close as my house is, that I honestly thought this might be part of a command station at some point,” she said. “I was talking to my neighbors yesterday, and none of them had gotten a call. Or anything… I guess it’s kind of the same question that everybody has. I guess, as far as like, why that area wasn’t secure.”
A newly posted video on X shows Thomas Matthew Crooks, the attempted assassin of Trump, crawling on the roof while bystanders alert law enforcement.
An officer was nearby the building when bystanders alerted him to the potential threat.
After audience members alerted local law enforcement officers that Crooks was climbing a ladder onto the roof of a building, an officer followed and ultimately confronted the would-be assassin.
Crooks responded by pointing his gun at the officer in blue, who retreated down the ladder. Immediately after, Crooks fired a shot at Trump.
As we already reported, the Secret Service had identified the rooftop next to Trump’s event in Butler, Pennsylvania, as a security risk days before the rally.
The agents’ failure to secure the building allowed a man with a rifle to climb to the roof, position his scope, and fire multiple shots at President Trump.
A bullet grazed Trump’s right ear, injuring two rally attendees, with one Trump supporter fatally shot.
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