Five questions for the Secret Service after the attack at Trump rally

Following the shooting of Donald Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania, several important questions have emerged for the US secret service to answer.

The FBI has taken over the investigation into the incident, in which one person was killed and two others were seriously injured – Trump suffered an ear injury.

While the U.S. demands answers, the Secret Service says it is working to find out “what happened, how it happened, and how we can prevent an incident like this from ever happening again.”

Her boss, Kimberly Cheatle, was subpoenaed to testify before a U.S. House of Representatives committee on July 22.

Here are some of the questions experts have started asking.

It remains unclear how suspected shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks gained access to the roof of a building near the rally, barely more than 130 meters from Trump.

According to NBC News, which cited two sources familiar with Secret Service operations, the roof was already known to be a weak point before the incident.

“Someone should have been on the roof or securing the building so that no one could get on the roof,” NBC quoted one of the sources as saying.

In addition to the access issue, it was suggested that the line of sight from the roof to Trump’s podium area should have been blocked.

Imposters should not have been able to see Trump directly, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told ABC News on Monday.

Mr Mayorkas said officials would “thoroughly and independently investigate the incident and make recommendations to the Secret Service and me.”

An eyewitness to the shooting told the BBC that he and others “clearly” saw Crooks crawling around on the roof with a rifle. They alerted police, but the suspect continued to wander around for several minutes before firing shots and then being shot himself, the eyewitness said.

FBI Special Agent Kevin Rojek admitted it was “surprising” that the attacker was able to open fire.

The county sheriff confirmed that Crooks was spotted by a local police officer who was unable to stop him in time. It is unclear, however, whether this information also reached Trump’s agents.

According to a senior law enforcement official, Crooks was already on officers’ radar. They told CNN anonymously that officers thought he was acting suspiciously near the magnetometers. That information was reportedly passed on to the Secret Service.

The gunman fired his shots from what police described as a “secondary ring” monitored not by the Secret Service but by local and state officials.

A former Secret Service agent said such agreements only worked when there was a clear plan about what to do if a threat was identified.

“If you rely on your local law enforcement partners, plan carefully and tell them what you expect from them in the event of a threat,” Jonathan Wackrow told the Washington Post.

The county sheriff acknowledged that it was a “failure,” but said no one was to blame.

A former chairman of the House Oversight Committee said the Secret Service was “overburdened,” exacerbating the fact that local police were not “adequately trained” to secure an event like Saturday’s rally.

Jason Chaffetz, who has previously reported on Secret Service failures, told the Washington Post that there is no greater “threat profile” than that of Trump or President Biden, but that this is not reflected in the security presence in Pennsylvania.

The Secret Service has denied that a request from Trump’s team to increase personnel numbers was denied in the run-up to the rally.

However, the Washington Post reported that it saw a message exchange in which a former Secret Service agent asked colleagues how the suspect got a gun so close to Trump. He reportedly received the answer: “Resources.”

In a statement on Monday, Ms. Cheatle said changes had been made to Trump’s Secret Service staff ahead of the start of the Republican National Convention, which begins in Milwaukee on Monday. She said she was “confident” about the overall plan.

The agents protecting Trump received much praise, including from former agent Robert McDonald, who said they did a “pretty good job” despite there being no precise “playbook” for what to do in such a situation.

However, questions were also raised as to whether they were fast enough to put the former president into a vehicle.

Footage of the incident shows them quickly forming a shield around him immediately after the shooting, but then stopping when Trump tells him to pick up his shoes. The former president then clenches his fist for his supporters.

A Secret Service veteran told the New York Times he would not have waited. “If that’s me there, no. We’re leaving, and we’re leaving now,” Jeffrey James said.

“If it’s me, I’ll buy him a new pair of shoes.”