Bethel Park, Pennsylvania – Days after a would-be assassin of former President Donald Trump killed a passerby and wounded two others, questions remain about how a gunman, armed with a rifle and in plain sight, could have climbed to a rooftop within 150 yards of a major political candidate.
A former agent and security consultant said the modern Secret Service is “stretched” by new responsibilities and people it protects, while its budget and personnel haven’t kept up with the times. He said missed opportunities over the past two decades left his previous agency overworked.
“After 9/11, the Secret Service had a real opportunity to increase its budget, double the size of the organization and increase its capabilities, and no director has done that,” said Bill Gage, a mass shooting response expert who retired after 13 years with the Secret Service, six and a half of them as a member of the counterassault team.
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On Saturday, July 13, 2024, Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump was speaking at a campaign event in Butler, Pennsylvania when gunfire erupted and a police sniper returned fire. (AP Photo/Jean J. Puskar)
“In an ideal world, we’d have 30 CS teams and 500 agents,” he said, using the agency’s acronym for the countersniper teams that took down the assassin, “but the service just doesn’t have those resources.”
A third of that staffing would have been sufficient, he said.
Instead, video from the rally shows a single police team returning fire and neutralizing the suspect while a group of agents on the ground surrounded the former president and physically protected him.
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Republican presidential candidate and former president Donald Trump is surrounded by U.S. Secret Service agents during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, Saturday, July 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Minutes later, additional officers in tactical gear were photographed standing near the suspect’s body on the roof.
The Justice Department’s expanded mission also comes as the country is in the midst of a busy 2024 election season, with both President Biden and his predecessor and challenger, Trump, on regular trips, and the Republican National Convention set to kick off in Milwaukee, followed a few weeks later by the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
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Police officers move around during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, 2024. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
“When I joined the military in 2002, we were just protecting the president, the vice president and a few of their families,” Gage told Fox News Digital. “By the time I retired, we were also protecting the vice president’s grandchildren, foreign presidents, former presidents traveling abroad.”
As the list of people to protect expanded, so did the list of threats — the Islamic State terrorist group rose alongside al Qaeda and concerns about domestic terrorism grew — but the agency’s budget and staffing didn’t see any significant increases, Gage said.
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The illustration shows a bird’s-eye view of a Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, and the perspective of an alleged assassination plotter. (Fox News)
The U.S. Secret Service has also come under question in recent years over its level of preparedness and a number of scandals.
The Secret Service came under further criticism this week after an assassin attempted to assassinate Trump on the roof of a building outside the secured area of a Trump rally in Pennsylvania. The suspect, Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, died at the scene after being fired upon by the Secret Service’s counter-sniper team.
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But before that, he fatally injured Corey Comperatore, a 50-year-old engineer and father of two.
He also injured two other spectators, and Trump said a bullet had penetrated his right earlobe and he was seen with blood on the side of his head.
After the U.S. Secret Service returned fire during the assassination attempt on former President Trump, authorities approached the suspected shooter from the spot where he fell. (Source: Fox News Digital)
The gunman, armed with an AR-15 style rifle, climbed to the roof of a building across from the rally.
Authorities have been criticised for responding slowly after witnesses spotted an armed criminal on a roof and began screaming for help.
The Bethel Park School District has confirmed that the suspect in the July 13, 2024 assassination attempt on former President Donald J. Trump is a Bethel Park High School graduate. Thomas Matthew Crooks is a graduate of Bethel Park High School in the class of 2022. (Bethel Park School District)
But Gage and other experts argue that investigators at the scene were likely already responding in the chaos.
“I think these people are probably honest and sincere, but I think it’s just wild speculation to say nothing was done until the radio call records were available,” he said.
Still, he said the attack could have been thwarted sooner with more planning and resources.
Former Buffalo Township Fire Chief Corey Comperatore is pictured with his daughters in an undated family photo after Thomas Matthew Crooks, a suspected assassin of former President Donald Trump, shot and killed Comperatore during a gunfight at a rally in Butler County, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, authorities said. Secret Service agents returned fire, killing Crooks. (Helen Comperatore/Facebook)
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“I like the Secret Service, but it’s not without its flaws,” he said, “and I think there were some flaws, both in the planning and the resources that were put into this.”
