The security ‘hole’ that may have delayed the sniper response at Trump rally

Within seconds of 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks opening fire at former US president Donald Trump’s rally on Saturday evening (Sunday AEST), he was fatally shot by the Secret Service. But how did a specialised team of countersnipers fail to prevent its worst security lapse in decades?

A Washington Post analysis, based on more than 40 videos and photos, as well as satellite imagery and terrain analysis used to build a 3D model examining the rally site and shooter’s position, found that the two Secret Service countersniper teams might have initially been hindered in their ability to see the shooter as he crawled up the roof due to its slanted sides.

Butler Farm Show, site of the Trump campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Credit: AP

Trees near the rally probably played a part in obscuring the shooter from at least one team assigned to detect and “neutralise” would-be snipers.

The Secret Service is responsible for the overall co-ordination of security measures during an event. The agency’s director said it tasked local law enforcement with securing the building from which Crooks opened fire and that officers failed to prevent him from accessing the roof.

The Secret Service declined to comment when asked whether the slant of the roof or the trees would have impacted the teams’ ability to respond.

The Post’s assessments were reviewed and corroborated by three former law enforcement officials, including two retired snipers, a former Secret Service agent, and a former marine sniper.

The Post’s 3D model established that both units might have been hampered by the pitch of the building’s roof where Crooks was found, which rises just over one metre from its exterior walls to its peak.

According to the analysis, which placed a camera at the eye view of the teams, Crooks would probably not have been visible as he crawled up the roof to take his final shooting position.

The Post’s reconstruction shows that the northernmost Secret Service countersniper team closest to the suspect, which was slightly more than 120 metres away and atop an approximately seven-metre-tall barn, may have further struggled to see him because of two trees between them.

The second countersniper team, located roughly 167 metres from the shooter, while farther away, could have had a less obstructed view, according to The Post’s reconstruction, because they were positioned slightly to the west and the trees may not have been in their line of sight.

A screen grab from a video shot by a bystander and sourced by celebrity website TMZ shows the shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks.Credit: Backgrid/TMZ

Countersniper teams commonly scanned for threats with binoculars, which offer a wider field of vision than a rifle optic, said Jason Lawless, a retired officer who worked as a sniper with the Tulsa Police Department’s Special Operations Team in the US state of Oklahoma.

About two minutes before gunshots were fired, the northernmost team had already moved to their rifle positions, suggesting they were attuned to a potential threat at that point. It’s unclear exactly when Crooks first became visible to Secret Service countersnipers.

“If they’re on scope, they’ve been notified about something,” Lawless said. As Crooks fired his first shots, one of the countersnipers on the northernmost team flinched, he said, took his eye away from the scope, and reset his position.

The southernmost countersniper team, which can be seen in earlier images facing south, appeared to reorient northward before Crooks fired, suggesting that they were also aware of a threat.

Police snipers take aim after shots were fired while Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump was speaking at a campaign event on Sunday (AEST).Credit: AP

The two teams’ positions on the barn roofs sat between approximately 1.5 and 2.4 metres respectively higher than the rooftop from which Crooks fired. This meant that both teams were probably not high enough to see Crooks as he crawled up the other side of the roof, The Post’s model showed.

A law enforcement official with knowledge of the shooting said the sloped roof could have created a visual block to the countersnipers. The countersniper who killed Crooks had him in his sights for some moments trying to assess whether he had a gun and was a threat, and then shot him seconds after Crooks fired, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity amid an ongoing investigation.

Authorities have not said which member of Trump’s protection team shot and killed the gunman.

How Crooks scaled the roof of a nearby building, more than 121 metres away from where Trump was speaking, without being stopped by law enforcement is under investigation.

Aerial footage verified by The Post showed his body was located about 12 metres from the eastern edge of the building, which looks out on a car park. A few feet from him was a rifle, and farther down the roof an object that resembled a bag.

The Post’s 3D reconstruction shows that while there are trees between the shooter and one of the Secret Service teams, which would have offered him concealment, according to Lawless and the other experts, the view between the shooter and the podium where Trump was standing was largely unimpeded.

Aerial footage showed a ladder leaning against a structure connected to the building Crooks allegedly fired from, where there are also air-conditioning units. It’s unclear how the shooter reached the roof of the building, which at its lowest point is just more than four metres high.

While the countersniper teams would have had difficulty seeing Crooks while he was on the far side of the roof, onlookers outside the rally were able to easily spot him before the first gunfire, raising questions about the effectiveness of nearby local law enforcement patrols.

Videos filmed by attendees outside the rally’s perimeter and verified by The Post reveal their attempts to alert law enforcement to a person on the roof who they thought might be armed.

Police officers in the videos walk near the building from which Crooks fired. One video verified by The Post shows people calling out to officers that there was a man on the roof at least 86 seconds before the first shots were fired at 6.11pm. The camera zooms in to show him lying on his stomach.

“There should have been police officers in the vicinity who could have either denied him access to start with, or instantly respond to the call,” said Derrick Bartlett, a retired Fort Lauderdale Police Department SWAT sniper and president of the American Sniper Association. “So there was a hole in the security.”

Two audio experts, Rob Maher of Montana State University and Steven Beck of Beck Audio Forensics, counted a total of 10 gunshots after analysing verified footage of the assassination attempt and law enforcement response that followed. The first eight had similar audio characteristics and were fired in six seconds.

Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle is under fire for her agency’s handling of the Donald Trump shooting.Credit: AP

They were followed immediately by a shot from a different location, they said, and, 16 seconds after the shooting began, by a final shot. These last two gunshots had different acoustic signatures from the previous ones, suggesting a security response.

Maher and Beck cautioned that audio analysis alone could not determine the exact source of these gunshots.

On Tuesday, Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle said that local police were responsible for securing the building’s perimeter and that officers were inside when Crooks was on the roof. Part of the reason the agency didn’t request an officer on top, she said, was over safety concerns for someone standing on an angled roof.

The Post’s analysis shows the countersniper teams were positioned on steeper roofs.

On July 14, the day after the shooting, US President Joe Biden ordered an independent review of the incident. In a statement, Cheatle said her agency was “working with all involved federal, state and local agencies to understand what happened, how it happened, and how we can prevent an incident like this from ever taking place again”.

Washington Post

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