U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle gave a shocking reason behind the agency’s decision not to have a Secret Service agent on the warehouse roof that would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks went up on to shoot at former President Donald Trump.
According to The Daily Mail, Cheatle is currently facing pressure to resign due to the Secret Service’s major security failure that allowed a shooter to target a former U.S. president. In an interview with ABC News, Cheatle explained that the building, which was located roughly 147 yards away from the stage at Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, was considered a risky position for an agent to be deployed.
Explaining the agency’s reason for not having an agent positioned on the roof, Cheatle said, “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.”
“And so, you know, the decision was made to secure the building, from inside,” Cheatle added.
The Daily Mail reported that the Secret Service’s failure to secure the warehouse building roof turned into a security nightmare as Crooks was able to climb the outside of the building and position himself on the roof as law enforcement officials attempted to locate him and Trump supporters warned of his movements.
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Cheatle claimed that the Secret Service did not have adequate time to locate Crooks before the attempted assassination.
“The shooter was actually identified as a potential person of suspicion,” Cheatle told ABC News. “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.”
Cheatle added that while she did not have all the details yet, the whole process of identifying the suspect and neutralizing him was a “very short period of time.”
“Seeking that person out, finding them, identifying them, and eventually neutralizing them took place in a very short period of time, and it makes it very difficult,” she said.
The Secret Service director also indicated that she would not step down from her position despite the massive security breach. However, Cheatle did claim some level of responsibility for the incident on behalf of the Secret Service.
“The buck stops with me,” she said. “It was unacceptable. And it’s something that shouldn’t happen again.”
