The assassination attempt on former United States President Donald Trump has led to several questions about Intelligence and security failure, with experts telling CNN-News18 that even basic SOPs seem to have been ignored.
Dressed in a white shirt, dark blazer and bright red MAGA cap, Trump was railing against illegal immigration on Sunday when shots rang out, piercing the upper part of his right ear.
One of the biggest lacunae on the part of the security establishment seems to be not sanitising the rooftop from where 20-year-old shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire. Video evidence and eye-witness accounts suggest that the building, which belonged to American Glass Research and from where the assassin fired, was just across a service lane from the Butler Farm Show Ground — the rally venue. About 150 yards away, it was directly in the line of vision from the stage where Trump was addressing the rally.
How Crooks gained access to the building and why it was not included in the security cordon has been raising eyebrows, given that advance security liaison carried out before the visit of a high-profile protectee entails sanitising all buildings, lanes and by-lanes in the vicinity.
Security Analyst, Major General (Retired) AK Siwaich, told News18: “A number of loopholes were left by the FBI… The way the assassin could fire at will… How were that rooftop and building not sealed ahead of the visit by a former President whose candidature as a nominee in the upcoming polls is to be announced shortly?”
Officials in the probe team have told CNN that the shooting came from the “three o’clock position of Trump’s podium location, with shots coming from his right side”.
Questions have also been raised about the response of the Secret Service after the attack. Video evidence shows that bullets were being fired even when Donald Trump ducked. While the former president thanked the Secret Service for protecting him, security experts ask why the ballistic briefcase shields were not deployed.
The shields are carried by agents across the world who protect heads of states or VIPs of similar stature. An official of SPG — which protects the Indian prime minister and, till recently, former PMs and their families too — who did not wish to be named told News18 that the deployment of these shields is immediate protocol in case the protectee comes under fire. The video from Pennsylvania instead shows Secret Service agents using their bodies to surround Trump, even as his head is visible over them.
Apart from this, security experts also flagged the absence of bullet proofing near the podium.
Eyewitness accounts suggest that Crooks was spotted near the rally venue minutes before the shootout. Some attendees told BBC News that they informed Secret Service after spotting Crooks with a rifle “jumping from roof to roof”.
“He was moving around with an AR-15. It is not a normal weapon but a semi-automatic rifle which, for a long time, was meant only for military use. It should be difficult to procure. How did law enforcers allow someone to move around with such a weapon so close to the high-profile rally?” Major General Siwaich asked.
Preliminary investigation reveals that local law enforcers spotted Crooks and alerted the Secret Service. “They put it out over their radio to keep an eye on him,” a source told CNN International.
The assassination attempt has further fuelled tensions ahead of the US presidential election. After the attack, The Secret Service said the shooter “fired multiple shots toward the stage from an elevated position outside the rally” before being “neutralised” by agents.
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