Secret Service Director: No Snipers on Roof Where Crooks Shot Trump Due to Sloped Roof
Snipers inside the building. Warnings of suspicious person.
It’s hard to keep up with the information coming out about the failed assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump.
I don’t want to be a conspiracy theorist, but the government isn’t making it easy because the more details emerge, the worse the government looks.
Secret Service Director: No Snipers on Roof Because It’s Sloped
Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle claimed the agency didn’t put snipers on the roof where Thomas Crooks shot former President Donald Trump because it has a sloped roof. She also said that the agents didn’t have time to respond to tips about Crooks:
‘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 told ABC News in an interview Tuesday.
‘And so, you know, the decision was made to secure the building, from inside.’
What transpired instead was a security nightmare: Thomas Matthew Crooks was able to scale the building and secure his own position, while law enforcement struggled to locate him even amid pressing warnings from members of the Trump crowd. But there wasn’t sufficient time to act on the tips, she explained.
‘The shooter was actually identified as a potential person of suspicion,’ 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.’
She was referencing claims by witnesses that they alerted law enforcement about the threat, but agents weren’t able to eliminate the threat in time. Officials have pointed to the initial responding officer, who lifted himself up on the roof only to lower himself back when his own life was threatened.
Holy shit. A sloped roof? That is a total BS excuse.
Our snipers used to set in on mountain tops in Afghanistan. On the down slopes if need be.
The stupidity of this statement explains so much of why shit hit the fan that day.
Absolute incompetence. https://t.co/mfPKwOiR0X— Sean Parnell (@SeanParnellUSA) July 16, 2024
Local Law Enforcement had Three Snipers Inside Building
Uh, what? Apparently, local police enforcement had three snipers in the building where Thomas Crooks shot Trump:
The operations plan had them stationed inside the building looking out windows toward the Trump rally. The information about the three snipers being inside the building was first reported by BeaverCountian.com.
One of the snipers inside saw Thomas Matthew Crooks outside and looking up at the roof, observing the building and disappearing, a local law enforcement officer tells CBS News.
Crooks came back, sat down and looked at his phone. At that point, one of the snipers took a picture of him. Crooks took out a rangefinder and the sniper radioed to the command post. Crooks disappeared again and then came back a third time with a backpack. The snipers called in with information that he had a backpack and said he was walking towards the back of the building.
Officers believe that Crooks might have used an air conditioning unit to get on top of the roof.
Officers called for help, but Crooks already made it to the roof. Those who responded to the call tried to get on the roof but didn’t get there in time.
Police Warned Secret Service About Suspicious Person
NBC News learned that local police officers told Secret Service about a suspicious person before Thomas Crooks opened fire on Trump:
Local police officers began pursuing Crooks on foot, the officials said. During the pursuit, the U.S. official said, local police told the Secret Service they were looking for a suspicious person near the event.
It is not clear what time the Secret Service was notified and whether it was before Trump took the stage on the grounds of the Butler Farm Show, a venue roughly 36 miles north of Pittsburgh. The U.S. official said the Secret Service was told of a suspicious person before local police discovered Crooks on the roof of a nearby glass research company’s building. That discovery occurred shortly before Crooks opened fire, according to two law enforcement sources.
The timing raises questions about whether other measures could have been taken to stop Crooks.
Secret Service Identified Crooks as ‘Potential Person of Suspicion’
An officer told the Secret Service about a man carrying a range-finder 30 minutes before he shot Trump:
United States Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle made the remark in an interview that aired on ABC News just hours after Fox News Digital reported that a local law enforcement officer spotted a suspicious man carrying a range-finder just 30 minutes before Saturday’s attempted assassination in Butler.
That officer reported the sighting to state police, a law enforcement source said. He took a photo, and there was a discussion about whether what he was carrying was a pair of binoculars to try and see the rally better. But then a few minutes into Trump’s remarks, the would-be assassin — identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20 — began shooting, according to authorities.
“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 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.”
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Comments
It looks like it wasn’t so sloped someone couldn’t shoot off it
Oddly enough, the SS snipers behind Pres. Trump were on a sloped roof.
https://www.npr.org/2024/07/14/nx-s1-5039137/secret-service-investigating-how-trump-shooter-was-able-to-get-so-close
Exactly. Total garbage.
A roof that had MORE OF A SLOPE than the one in question.
This is classic liberal BS. Invent a reason why you failed, refuse to admit a mistake was made and as long as you stick to your ‘reason’, you won’t face consequences.
This utterly idiotic, transparently unavailing and contrived statement of excuse and deflection of responsibility sounds as though it had been drafted by an apparatchik from the Soviet Union’s Central Committee. That’s how utterly brimming with arrogance, stupidity and cluelessness it is.
The failure was either due to incompetence or it was intentional. Either way, anyone responsible for policies or decisions regarding that event should be out, including Cheatle. A classic case of DEI “Didn’t Earn It” if there ever was one.
I was just thinking the same thing! Also, the slope of the roof the “Counter-Snipers” were on was sloped more than the roof the Assassin used.
Right….
Wait a minute! There was a young man up there, and a little piece of metal weighing less than half an ounce actually killed him, which totally vindicates the USSS director’s judgement that the roof was too dangerous for her people. I mean, protecting Trump is all very well, but safety first!
The fact that this lady had not resigned or been relieved of duties is astounding. There is no honor or accountability in the Biden world.
I think that the named office holder’s main political opponent was almost taken out may relate to her remaining in office
Oh, it’s a lot bigger than the Biden orbit, unfortunately.
Concur. If it were a Republican administration and a Democrat target, this person would have been bounced Monday morning.
Baba is right, because you can see with the naked eye that most of the employed officers roll faster than they walk. A sloping roof is death to them.
That’s why they wear hats. So you can tell if they’re walking or rolling.
I am told that the SS builds a security plan days in advance based on its review on-site as well as lots of other factors. If the sloped roof was recognized in advance, seems to me that you’d have a plan for it.
I’m not a security expert (as I am not an expert on Ukraine and lots of other stuff), but it does seem to me that having a single local LEO on that roof would have deterred Mr. Crooks, particularly if he were scouting about in advance of climbing to the roof. He would have seen the LEO and moved on. Again, I’m not an expert.
Yeah. Just putting local LEO or State Troopers on nearby roofs (500 yards and closer) with clear line of sight or on the ground outside around the buildings in sufficient numbers to deter access would have worked as methods of area denial. That a rooftop with a clear field of fire approx 150 +yards away was left accessible is an incredible failure. That there still seems to be some friction about which agency was responsible for what with fingers being pointed between them demonstrates a confused and ineffective plan.
“That there still seems to be some friction about which agency was responsible for what with fingers being pointed between them demonstrates a confused and ineffective plan.”
USSS has near-complete control over local agency personnel when they are protecting a dignitary at an event like this. There should be no finger pointing. USSS screwed up or intentionally allows a gunman to come within an inch of assassinating the former president and candidate.
Heads would roll if someone shot at Obama or Clinton as former presidents.
Usually … but not for Trump. I heard that the secret service did the walk-through on the site only the day before.
They were intentionally letting Trump hang out in the open, the same way they were trying to force RFK Jr. out of the race by denying him SS protection.
It’s very clear that this was all by design – as the obliterated border was completely by design. They protected Trump the exact same way they protected the border and they hoped that the result would be the same. THey got very, very, very close.
Even if the cop were sitting up there, like Christie in the beach chair, noshing on curlers, it would have been a deterrent to this shooter. At a minimum he would have to shoot the cop*, and alert everyone.
(Or, of course, the cop might have just offered him a donut, then left. Because guys with guns are scary.)
You don’t need somebody on the roof if you have people on the ground to prevent entry or climbing. Where the heck were those people?
Uh, the CS boys were on a sloped roof, and both look to be the standard Ag building 3/12 slope, easily navigated.
“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.”
This is such Bravo Sierra…they had a full 2 minutes, which has been proven in countless videos from onlookers phones who thereafter alerted local police.
This entire SS operation smells so bad it makes a filled Biden dumpster in August seems flowery.
We’re at the “we think the people are stupid” phase of passing the buck. Sloped roof? GMAFB.
Newman…
phsaw….The post office staff doesn’t go to work when its raining.
At this point I’d respect her more for admitting she was trying to get Trump killed.
I am also not a security expert, but have a modicum of common sense. If a suspicious person was seen within easy shooting range and then couldn’t be located, why wouldn’t the SS immediately have the presumed target, Trump, moved to safety until the status of the potential suspect could be established?
Or at least have thrown some suppressive fire in his direction to keep him down.
Dan Bogino, ex-USSS on the PPD, made a similar comment.
If a threat had been identified on site, why wasn’t Trump’s speech delayed until the person could be located?
Lost of people look or act suspiciously. There has to be a near-immediate and actionable threat to remove the protectee. But, with a credible threat, there should have been an agent on either side of that podium to provide some measure of body protection.
I know I have unreasonable expectations that the SS should be able to stop a LARPing 20 year old who can’t hit an elephant at 130 yard or a crack head stick up artist stealing a handbag.
So it’s even MORE unreasonable that I would expect them stop sayyyyy one of those paid Iranian terrorists with half a lifetime of training in holding universities hostage from turning their sites to a bigger target.
Who else was LARPing? Looks to me like the Secret Service was doing plenty of that.
And, remember, the State has already set up the expectation that an Iranian assassin might kill Trump. Remember this from 2 1/2 months ago?
I’m sorry, that was 4 1/2 months ago.
Is she a Neanderthal, you know, they had sloped foreheads
Just saying…
This one seems a no-brainer: when the primary of a Secret Service detail is about to step into the public eye, there should be a check-in process with the detail, with a go/no-go format. If there is anything amiss or suspicious, they give a no-go.
NASA does this before liftoff.
Surgeons do this before surgery.
What we have here is a failure to communicate. Clearly, the SS didn’t let all assassins know that sloped roofs are off limits.
and a failure to post the sign: Gun Free Sloped Roof Zone.
Can’t do it. Can’t do it. Can’t do it.
Secret service used to have a can do attitude. Now not so much.
The 20 year old assassin had a can do attitude. He was able to climb up there and shoot. He did what secret service could not do and puts them all to shame.
To be fair.
While he would fail most competency tests, he could not fail as many as a DEI hire at the SS.
This event is an outrageous clusterfarce. Is treason concealed by the incompetence?
I know the SS snipers had to do what they did. On the other hand, if there was a plot, Crooks’ elimination would be desirable.
Something doesn’t smell right.
Completely ridiculous excuse. This just makes it look more like a coverup
Wow!! Just … WOW!!!
That is completely insane.
If they’re afraid someone might slip and get hurt climbing on a roof, then heaven forbid that one of the agents would be willing to take a bullet for the president.
Before sending out secret service agents to do a site assessment, they send out OSHA agents to assess the site for safety to ensure none of the secret service agents will get hurt.
LOL.
Paula, you’re on fire!!
Just in. Autopsy results on the assassin show he died from falling off a sloped roof and bumping his head on a ladder.
Or, run to the nearest Cabela’s or Bass Pro and buy a shooting mat. You can get one with a rubberized (waterproof) base layer and softer top layer. Pretty easy fix.
DEI hires defeated by a 4% incline?
Where are the memes?
“US authorities obtained intelligence from a human source in recent weeks on a plot by Iran to try to assassinate Donald Trump, a development that led to the Secret Service increasing security around the former president in recent weeks”
-CNN
https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2024/07/16/politics/iran-plot-assassinate-trump-secret-service
Good Grief. Joe Biden’s DEI Secret Service wasn’t ready for a retarded food service worker but had allegedly ‘increased security’ to meet the threat from the largest terrorist state in the history of humankind.
They were also protecting Trump with the 2nd string because Trump’s primary protection detail had been reassigned to Jill Biden for that day. Make it make sense.
Recent weeks? Bullcarp! The FBI tossed out that nugget back in March.
Occam’s Razor…it as you suspect. Shifted protection to Not-A-Doc Jill because they wanted PDJT dead…their only remaining play as they accelerate off the cliff.
It was more like third or fourth string. They were temps on loan from DHS. Kimberly Cheatle should have been mortified at seeing those agents running in circles like Keystone Cops saying “What do we do?” when trying to remove President Trump from the scene. One of them had a terrible time trying to holster her gun. Even though I’m a woman, I don’t believe women should be in law enforcement except for desk jobs. That job requires testosterone, not feelings.
This isn’t incompetence. This is sabotage via intentional dereliction of duty and inaction.. There is no doubt in my mind that the SS –as with so many other federal agencies and departments — has been infiltrated by Trump-hating Dhimmi-crats and is now compromised.
I suspect that rot is mostly at the top. Some in the rank-and-file, but I know several folks in the USSS and they are firmly not supportive of Biden and the destruction of this country. They tell me a lot of the agents across the country feel the same way, but can’t speak up for fear of reprisal.
Too sloped? It’s not a freaking A frame. It’s got a very low pitch, maybe 1:12?
No more than 3/12, I would think.
If that is dangerous it means wheelchair ramps are also too risky for the agents.
Were they that strapped for cash that a drone or two was out of reach?
They had them up and flying at his rally in Chesapeake, VA, just after the debate.
But maybe they were all hovering over Dr Jill that day.
A potential person of suspicion? Was it a fetus displaying a dubious expression?
Yeah, not like those snipers visible on the sloped roof behind Trump. Not like that, at all.
Multiple videos out there where attendees said there was a shooter killed at the water tower. If there were 2 shooters God help the SS because it will look exactly as people suspect: an Op perpetrated by our own government. Crooks looks more and more like a patsy.
I wonder about two shooters, too. Someone happened to catch a photo of the speeding bullet toward President Trump, but it was coming from behind. That photo is available on X (Twitter), unless it’s been take down.
The building the shooter was on was a staging area for Security. How does that happen?
The security plan had the cops inside the building, including the snipers who were supposed to be stationed at windows.
Why anyone would put snipers in the building on the ground floor is beyond comprehension. There are no clean shots at ground level into a mass of people or shooting from ground level to a nearby roof. Any misses will kill someone a mile or two down the road. Crazy.
Cheatle stated:
look ,, when I was head of dei at pepsico we didnt have sloped roofs
my dei training manual never spoke of this
I will stay the course and sue trump for being 6’3′ and that is discrimination against women!!!
They volunteered to take a bullet to protect American VIPs from death.
But not to walk/stand on a very slightly sloped roof. That’s too risky and dangerous.
Nonsense. Either the SS is incompetent, or else the SS is complicit in conspiracy to take out trump. Which one of these two does SS want to be?
Well, this certainly helps me understand why worker’s comp for roofers is so high.
If we can be serious for a moment, roofing is actually a more dangerous job than law enforcement. It’s one of the most dangerous jobs out there.
Going forward, the obvious solution is to ban roofs and sloped surfaces.
Don’t even get me started on the danger posed to the general public by “assault roofs.” They are a menace to American society.
Did anyone think to check the strapping? Put an agent up on a sloped roof on a windy day with insufficient strapping and you are just one gust away from lift off. At the very least the agents need to visit Texas A&M’s wind tunnel.
There’s been a pattern for the last 20 years or so (that I can think of). When the Secret Service makes the news, as it does fairly regularly, it’s because of incompetence.
If President Trump wants to survive after he wins the election, he’s going to have to gut that agency and start all over again. If he wants to survive until then, he should invest in private security.
As was mentioned before, William of Ockham’s Razor has been slicing. At which point is it reasonable to consider that the orders the SS had were not to protect President Trump from such as Crooks; but rather to ensure that nothing interfered with Crooks? And have those orders been countermanded . . . . or have they been re-emphasized?
Subotai Bahadur
I would not be surprised that there is evidence that a single gunshot was fired from underneath the roof where Crooks lay. I would have seized every LEO firearm from that area as evidence for further investigation.
That first shot that hit Trump seemed like a pro-attempt. The spray and pray from Crooks just doesn’t seem credible enough to get that close to Trump.
Yesterday I saw an interview with a woman who was a vendor at the event. She has been at more than 100 Trump rallies all over the country, and she said she noticed something different right away when she was setting up for the event. She noticed the unprotected building so close to the stage, which she thought was highly unusual. Then she wondered where all the trucks were. Apparently, at past events they used big, heavy-duty trucks as a barrier between buildings close to the stage to block the line of sight of any would-be shooter. That didn’t happen this time.
Enough with this nonsense.
Both she and Mayorkas are making excuses and refusing to resign.
Even IF their conduct and decision making were absolutely above reproach (and they most certainly are NOT), then I’d still say they need to resign or be removed.
So call the vote, Johnson. By the end of the week. Impeach them both and dare the Democrats to try and keep them in place.
let me also re-post this here:
SOOOOOOOO IF THEY ARE EQUAL….
ACCORDING TO The ss stats page:
women are allowed to do 40% LESS pushups etc than men to qualify
AND are allowed to be 20% SLOWER than men in time running
ALSO THE PAGE BRAGGES THE FOLLOWING:
When Special Agent Training Class 387 graduated in April of 2021, it marked the first instance in which women trainees outnumbered the men.
SO ARE THEY REJECTING FROM the beginning applicants from males ( yes is my guess) ???????
Yes. Kimberly Cheatle has a stated goal of making the SS 30% women.
This is not intended to be misogynist, but I work part-time in executive protection. Most women (maybe not all) are not large enough to be a realistic or useful body shield for a larger man like Trump. Most women are not strong enough to pull a wounded protectee out of harms way without help. There are a lot of support roles in a detail that are perfect for women. The personal detail around the protectee needs to have the best qualified, not Didn’t Earn It quota hires. Put women agents in the crowd, the edges of the stage, following up leads on suspicious characters. His close protection detail should have all be 6’+ guys with enough shoulder width to cover him physically and enough strength to pull him off the stage without assistance.
There was only 1 CONSPIRACY
and that is to deny that the most qualified are to be given the job/task
in order to appease the lefty dei agenda
So they have a report of a suspicious person around the building prior to him getting up on the roof, if they can’t locate such person why not park a drone in orbit around the building.
Even if you want to believe the joke about the roof slope, this makes the option of observation by drone even more of an option. The drone should have picked up him getting onto the roof and getting a photos/ video of him unpacking a gun, crawling toward his shooting location.
The military can take out somebody from long range via drone, does the SS have the same technology, if not then why.
Or just walk outside the building instead of sitting inside? How hard is it to monitor the perimeter of a building?
“And so the decision was made to secure the building from the inside.” When the part of the building that needed to be secured was the roof???
If the stage could also be targeted from the windows, then yes, of course the inside also needs to be watched, and if the windows are a good vantage point for watching people, maybe put a sniper team inside, but the roof is by far the best vantage point from that location. To have three teams there and none on the roof is absolutely insane.
A vantage position from inside the building was found to be preferable because it was air conditioned.
Yeah, these SS statements are contemptibly farcical. What good are snipers stationed inside the damn building? A single local cop or two cops could have secured the interior, while the snipers should have been on the roof.
OK, I know that these “Director” positions that are appointed are usually filled by people that don’t have any clue how they agency they are “Director” of runs, but this woman isn’t competent to run a slushy stand.
Even from a political standpoint she can’t BS enough to even begin to cover up mistakes.
They questioned the shooter, but he said he wasn’t a Christian so they assumed he wasn’t a threat.
The perp’s skin pigmentation should have been a dead giveaway, though.
Next week:
SAC Commander: ICBMs Not Launched Due to “Rainy Conditions’
What an idiot. Is she related to Sotomayor? Or just shares idiocy as a trait?
Dealey Plaza all over again. It’s getting harder and harder to believe our government only topples foreign leaders.
I had a half-dozen workers scrambling around on my sloped roof for a couple days replacing it The slope didn’t seem to bother them any. Sheesh, these DEI-hires and Affirmative Action corps, and Lefties in general it seems, have absolutely zero clue as to how anything works. The shiny thing in front of them is all that they can ever see.
TBH though, and according to OSHA, roofing contractors have the highest fatality rate among US professions.
Let us dispense with the inanities.
The administration had the exact person they wanted on that roof.
Even if you don’t put a sniper on the roof because it may be unsafe, you ensure no one else can get on it. An assassin is unlikely to be concerned about safety.
I watched video of the sniper on the roof. I didn’t notice a slope – certainly not enough to keep off anyone physically fit enough even for a mall cop. It’s a lying and ridiculous excuse for an inexcusable mistake.
Then there’s the SS agent who stands more than a head shorter than Trump, huddling in front of him to take a bullet if the shooter lowered his aim to Trump’s belly. But she was much, much more professional and effective than the fat woman hiding behind Trump and the other protectees.