Security errors, lapses and missed opportunities to stop a gunman led to the first shooting of a US president or former president in more than a generation.
Here are several issues and problems identified by CNN that could or should have been addressed before the attack on former President Donald Trump.
In addition, CNN Chief Law Enforcement and Intelligence Analyst John Miller provided his analysis of some of the issues and their importance.
Unsecured rooftop in range of the stage and with clear line of sight
The building used by the gunman was outside the “hard perimeter” set by the United States Secret Service inside which every person is screened. But less than 500 feet from the stage, the building was within shooting range and had a clear line of sight to where the former president stood to address the crowd.
“This is a key factor in protective planning: What structures have a line of sight to the protectee, especially if that also includes high ground, a window, or a rooftop,” Miller explained. “This building encompassed all those elements, and it was within a very viable range for a rifle shot.”
Shooter was apparently seen acting suspiciously early by security cordon
The shooter was spotted by local law enforcement who thought he might have been acting suspiciously near the magnetometers on Saturday, according to a senior law enforcement official.
They put it out over their radio to keep an eye on him – and that information was passed to Secret Service as well, according to the source. When the shooter left the area of the magnetometers, he apparently wasn’t seen again until people alerted law enforcement in a field outside the event that he was on the rooftop.
About an hour before the incident, a person wearing clothing resembling the gunman’s was also captured on video in front of the building whose roof the shooter later climbed, according to footage obtained by CNN affiliate WTAE.
Pennsylvania State Police told WTAE they are looking into the video as a part of the investigation. CNN has reached out to the state police for more information.
A source told CNN that about 19 minutes before the shooting, law enforcement was trying to locate the shooter, but they could not find him until he was on the roof.
Building access not controlled
No one stopped the shooter from reaching the roof of the American Glass Research building.
Potential confusion about law enforcement presence
Snipers from the Butler County Emergency Services Unit were in the same complex but were not aware of the gunman on the roof, a source familiar with the ongoing investigation told CNN.
They were positioned on the second floor, watching the rally crowd, the source said.
Miller raised questions about the Secret Service’s approach to securing that building: “In the initial planning to secure this event, if that building was identified as a ‘high-ground threat’ for a potential sniper attack, did the Secret Service set specific requirements for the police about access control around that building, or did they just instruct them to ‘keep an eye out for anything suspicious?’
“Those are going to be key questions in these after-action reviews,” he added.
Agencies initially blamed each other
The Secret Service was “solely responsible” for implementation of security at the rally, Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle told CNN’s Whitney Wild.
“At that particular site, we divided up areas of responsibility, but the Secret Service is totally responsible for the design and implementation and the execution of the site,” she told CNN Tuesday evening.
But Cheatle earlier told ABC News her agents only “shared support” for the building used for the shooting.
“We sought assistance from our local counterparts for the outer perimeter,” she said. “There was local police in that building – there was local police in the area that were responsible for the outer perimeter of the building.”
Cheatle said in the same interview that protection for Trump was the responsibility of the Secret Service and “the buck stops with me.”
Miller explained: “As part of the ‘outer perimeter,’ that building was the responsibility of local law enforcement, but that distinction only goes so far, and the Secret Service concedes that when the director says, ‘The buck stops here.’”
Crowd flagged gunman on roof almost 2 minutes before shooting
Attendees in the crowd noticed the gunman on the roof nearly two minutes before the shots were fired, according to a CNN analysis of witness video and the official video feed of Trump’s speech.
As Trump questioned if Biden “was doing the job,” someone on the video said, “Look they’re all pointing.” One minute and 57 seconds later, gunfire can be heard.
“My wife ran up to law enforcement and was trying to tell them where he was,” Mike DiFrischia, a witness who took video of the shooting, told CNN’s Erin Burnett. “But they couldn’t seem to see him because they weren’t in the right spot to see him on the roof. They were too close to the building.”
Local officer unable to tackle gunman before he fired at stage
Butler Township police officers were alerted to calls about a suspicious person near the rally on Saturday, the head of another law enforcement agency told CNN. They discovered the man on the roof and one local officer hoisted another to get up to the ledge, Butler County Sheriff Michael T. Slupe said.
The shooter turned around, saw the officer peering over and pointed his gun at him. The officer let go of the ledge to “take cover” and save his life. The gunman then started firing from the rooftop.
Reporting by CNN’s Pamela Brown, Shoshana Dubnow, Justin Lear, Holmes Lybrand, John Miller, Whitney Wild, Yan Kaner, Michelle Watson and Sharif Paget.
