According to reports, a Beaver County police officer stationed in the building used by the shooter who attempted to assassinate former President Donald Trump reportedly saw the would-be assassin scanning the roof with a rangefinder and notified the command center.
Beaver County Citizen report An officer working as one of three anti-sniper officers stationed in the building as part of the Beaver County Emergency Services Unit on Monday evening saw a man returning with a backpack before scaling the building.
The media reported that the security operation plan called for three counter-snipers to be stationed inside the building to monitor the rally from the windows, with no one stationed on the roof.
The media reported that due to a lack of personnel, the snipers were not assigned spotters, as per standard operational procedure, who help snipers find and assess targets, measure wind speed and distance to targets, and assess and adjust impacts.
Local police officials said a lack of staffing and “grossly poor planning” put Trump’s life at risk.
At least one of the counter-shooters was a member of the Monaca Borough Police Department and was providing security for the rally as a member of the Beaver County ESU, the equivalent of a SWAT team, according to the media report.
CBS News report After Crooks was first spotted, he returned, sat down and looked at his phone, at which point one of the snipers took a photo of him, after which Crooks pulled out a rangefinder and the sniper radioed command, the network reported.
Crooks then disappeared, then reappeared a third time wearing a backpack. The sniper reportedly reported Crooks walking toward the back of the building with the backpack on, police said. Police believe Crooks may have used an air conditioner to get to the roof.
CBS News reported that Crooks had climbed to the roof of the building and was positioned “above and behind the sniper inside the building” by the time other officers arrived to back up. Two other officers who heard the sniper’s call tried to get on the roof, and state police began to rush to the scene, but by then a Secret Service sniper had already shot and killed Crooks, according to the network.
On Tuesday, Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle acknowledged that the decision had been made to place snipers inside the building rather than on top of it, citing concerns about the “sloping” roof.
Cheatle told ABC News:
That building in particular has a sloped roof on the highest part, so, you know, for safety reasons, you don’t want people on a sloped roof, so the decision was made to protect the building from the inside.
Both Republicans and Democrats have called for an explanation of how Crooks gained access to Trump and nearly succeeded in the assassination attempt, and some have called for Cheatle to resign. In an interview, Cheatle said he took responsibility but had no plans to resign.
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