Former Secret Service agent says counter snipers at Trump rally should have had '360 degree coverage' of surrounding buildings
A former Secret Service agent said counter-snipers at the Pennsylvania rally where a would-be assassin wounded former President Donald Trump should have had "360-degree coverage" of the event and surrounding buildings.
"I don't know how many they had, but they usually always look for 360-degree coverage," former Secret Service agent Anthony Cangelosi told Business Insider. "So that's one thing that's going to be considered."
The Federal Bureau of Investigation identified the shooter as a 20-year-old man from Bethel Park, Pennsylvania.
Cangelosi, who is now an adjunct professor at the John Jay School of Criminal Justice at the City University of New York, said the primary question law enforcement would likely be asking is how the suspect could have made it to the top of a nearby building undetected.
Butler Township Sheriff Michael Slupe told The Washington Post that a local officer encountered the suspect before the shooting but dropped to the ground because he did not have his weapon.
For a large event where the president or former president is speaking, the Secret Service on the scene would typically work with law enforcement to design a "site plan" with a mock-up of the event space and all surrounding buildings, Cangelosi said.
This plan will be paramount for investigators in determining what possible failures occurred during the rally, according to Cangelosi.