The man who shot Donald Trump on Saturday was in the “perfect location” to kill the former president, a security expert has revealed, highlighting the “enormous” failure of the Secret Service.
Twenty-year-old Thomas Crooks fired multiple bullets into Trump’s head on Saturday from a building nearly 500 feet from the stage where the former president was speaking at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
A bullet hit the former president in the ear, while two others were seriously injured and former firefighter Corey Comperatore was tragically killed while heroically defending his family from the incoming fire.
Darin Gaub, a retired Army lieutenant colonel and director of a private security firm, told DailyMail.com exclusively that he is stunned that the Secret Service failed to secure the building where Crooks was located.
He simply called it the best place to assassinate the former president, something the Secret Service should have known.
“That other building where the sniper was located was a perfect location to have an overview of the entire crowd and to see what was happening from that angle,” he said.
“I would absolutely have picked that site to put someone on,” he added.
Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle called the service’s actions at the meeting “unacceptable.”
She also noted in an interview with ABC News on Tuesday that the roof from which Crooks fired was unsafe for the officers standing there because of its slight slope.
“That building in particular has a sloped roof at the highest point. And so, you know, there’s a safety factor that would be taken into account, we wouldn’t want to put someone on a sloped roof,” she explained as the reason for not sending a Secret Service team to the site.
Gaub couldn’t believe Cheatle’s reasoning.
“I think it’s nonsense. It’s just an excuse. It’s not a valid reason,” he said.
The Secret Service “already had snipers on a sloping roof of the same design, 150 yards away, which made the whole thing ridiculous.”
He accused Cheatle of lying and said her reasoning was perfectly logical.
“Anyone who has any idea what they’re doing will look at that location and realize that this is a perfect location to put someone.”
A screenshot of a video shows the shooter was killed by the Secret Service, an agency source said.
Security personnel stand above the body of the shooter on a roof at the Trump rally. Cheatle said she did not send officers to this roof because of the slope and the safety risks such a surface poses
Republican presidential candidate and former US President Donald Trump responds after gunshots were heard during a campaign rally
Shortly after the shooting, Cheatle attempted to shift blame from the Secret Service to others.
She had said that local authorities were responsible for the security of the building where Crooks was located.
She later retracted her words, saying the Secret Service was “solely responsible” for failing to prevent the attack.
Gaub said that during his military service he learned about “force protection” — the extensive measures soldiers take to protect bases in Iraq and Afghanistan from enemy forces.
“Just like the sniper that was used in Pennsylvania, the principles are all the same. You can clearly look at the meeting location and see what are the most critical places that someone needs to be.”
A Secret Service counter sniper unit can be seen on the roof behind Trump, it is believed this team returned fire on Crooks after he fired at Trump. The roof they were deployed on also clearly has a slope which can be seen in this image
Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump are carried off stage after being shot
“And that building where that sniper was located was one of the most critical places there.”
An important part of security work is thinking like your enemies and taking their attack plans into account.
In the case of Saturday’s rally, few buildings offered as clear a view of the president as the one Crooks chose.
The Secret Service’s failure to identify the roof from which Crooks fired as a major threat points to a strategic failure by the agency, the veteran told DailyMail.com.
“This is one of the most unforgiving jobs in the world. If you make a mistake, you lose a life,” he said.
“And a mistake was made.”